BreakDown
by Thug-4-Less
Summary: A man awakens in a research facility with no memory and a lot of people wanting him dead.
1. Awakening

A tunnel of light.

A stream of consciousness.

Birth.

There was a ceiling, brightly lit, with childrens toys hanging from it.

"Total memory loss?" A voice, demanding and authoritative, asked.

"We haven't been able to determine the cause." Another voice, younger but still assertive, answered. "But he's not conscious. At least not one hundred percent. His brain seems to be asleep."

"I see." The other voice said and a deep, chilling silence fell.

Movement, someone coughed, and then a shadow partially blocked the view of the children's toys.

"Hey!" An old man's face is lined by the overhead light. "Wake up! You're our last chance."

The light brightened until it was all he could see.

_He? I'm a man?_ The thought, when he thought about it, was ridiculous.

The light faded and the man found himself staring at a different ceiling. This one was cleaner, more sterile, and obviously belonged to a medical facility of some kind. He looked around to get his bearings. The air seemed to ripple to his right, as though it were a pool of water, and a woman stepped out of the distortion in a burst of blue sparks. The man could only gape in wonder as she walked up to him, grabbed his shoulders, and began to speak gibberish. He stared into wide, hazel eyes and felt the tiniest flutter in his stomach. Then she moved away, walking backwards, before disappearing the same way she had appeared. The beautiful, raven-haired woman reappeared next to a stand of diagnostic equipment. She crouched; lithe and graceful in her gray-and-black camouflage gear, before springing up impossibly high, only to disappear in another burst of light just before crashing into the ceiling. The equipment was subsequently knocked over.

"Well, looks like you wasted no time in making a mess." A voice came over what sounded like a Public Announcement speaker.

The man, he idly wondered what his name was and why he couldn't remember it, looked upwards to his right and saw a black man wearing glasses waving to him from an observation room.

"Anyway, it's good to see you moving again." The amnesiac stood from the medical bed, noticing groggily that he wore black fatigue pants and metal-capped combat boots. "How do you feel?"

The lab technician turned away and addressed someone the man couldn't see. It was probably over an intercom system of some kind.

"Yeah, he's awake. Tell the chief." The technician turned back to him, "Derrick, I know you're still a little groggy, but I'd like to get started with rehab, and get some baseline data on your physical capabilities while we're at it. I'll need the data for comparison tests later on. I'm going to open the door now. The rehab room is Room One. I'm sorry to push you so hard but please work with us."

The man felt as though his thoughts were slogging their way through a bog. He stared at the man for several seconds before nodding and heading towards the door opposite his bed.

"I'll explain everything once we get started," the tech. assured him, but the man felt a sudden and intense distrust of the technician safe in his observation booth.

_Is he afraid of me?_ The man wondered as he headed out the door.

The corridor was featureless except for speakers and fire alarms at four meter intervals. The gray-steel metal was pristine and looked absolutely sterile. He followed the corridor, it turned twice, before coming to a sign hanging from the ceiling with the number one on it. It pointed to the corridor on his left so he took it. His breathing was heavy and labored. Somehow the man knew he was in much better physical condition than this.

A flash of memory halted him outside the door a few meters down the hall. He was running through an obstacle course with other young men, most in their late teens, in dark gray jumpsuits. He was well ahead of the others as they climbed a cargo net suspended high above a lake. His breath came easy and his muscles sang with the physical exertion.

Then he was back in the hospital having trouble breathing and standing on rubbery legs outside of Rehab Room One. He took a deep breath and entered. The tech. was waiting for him in an observation booth above him on the right.

"Alright, let's get to work. First one question: What's your name?"

"I… can't remember." the sound of his own voice startled the man slightly. It was deep and gentle but wholly unfamiliar.

"You don't know… well, no surprise there. Looks like you still have some memory impairment. We'll need to run some detailed tests."

Anger flared hot and heavy for a moment at the technician's attitude. He was being treated like a lab rat.

"First an eye test. Stand in the red ring and look at the red mark on the wall."

The man did as he was told only because he had been promised answers.

"Good, now face downward."

There was a peculiar emblem set beneath the red marker. The acronym C.S.C was stenciled beneath the emblem.

"Good. Now look at the blue marker."

The man, feeling more and more like he should be getting a slice of cheese, did so.

"Okay, no problems there. Let's move on to Room Two."

The walk to the next room cleared his head somewhat and he felt stronger. He stepped into an enclosed room, two walls were made of clear glass, that overlooked a gymnasium of some sort.

"Get the card key from the top of the desk," the voice came from nowhere but a surveillance camera on the wall let him know he was being watched.

The man looked to his left and saw a computer desk with a bright yellow keycard on it. He snatched it up and examined it. The card had the number zero before the words 'Cardlock System.'

"Use that to open the door."

The man glanced at the camera with a wry expression.

_No shit,_ he thought before moving to the door opposite the desk.

The card reader was so simple a child could use it. A yellow picture of a hand holding a card sat below a large graphic of the zero numbered keycard. Once he swiped it across, the picture the graphics turned blue and the door opened.

"Alright. Now the next test will involve some exercise, so I hope you're ready.

His mind was clearing more with every passing minute and so was the feeling that he was being led around by a colossal jackass. As he walked down a flight of metal stairs a tremor shook the entire room. He grabbed the handrail to avoid plunging headfirst into the ground. It was over in a few seconds and of course the jackass had something to say.

"That was a big one… nothing to worry about though. Japan is earthquake central. We get them all the time. Unfortunately that board fell in that last one. Sorry, Derrick, but you'll have to jump across to the other side."

_Derrick, huh. Maybe that_ is _my name. Anyway, it'll do until I get more answers._

The room was divided by a trench two meters wide.

_Only two meters. I feel like I couldn't jump half a meter. Here goes nothing._

Derrick took three quick strides and leapt with all his might. To his surprise, he cleared the trench quite easily.

"Go through there while you're crouched."

The room ended in a wall with a waist-high square cut in the bottom.

"There's no need to crawl."

_I hope he isn't going to coach me through every obstacle._

Derrick wasn't surprised when the tech. did, but he quickly learned to ignore the jackass. The next section was just a deep hole with a ladder leading up the wall on his left. He jumped into the hole, climbed the ladder, and was only slightly winded when he got to the top. Derrick was recovering quickly, far too quickly from the unsettled feeling he was getting, but he filed that away to worry about later. He jumped down to the other side and saw an even smaller hole cut into the wall in front of him. The technician wasn't finished telling him to go through the hole before he was standing on the other side. Once through he came to a gap far too long to jump. There was a bar two meters up the wall on his right that reached the other side. Derrick grabbed the bar and began shimmying his way across. Derrick was really getting sick of hearing The Jackass' voice. He was halfway across when he noticed a strange green blur in his upper left visual quadrant.

_Who the fuck thinks like that?_ He thought with a shake of his head as he blinked to try to clear the blur.

That only made it more defined and he saw that it looked like the status bar of a videogame.

_Maybe it's a side effect of whatever they did to me._

Derrick decided not to say anything when he got to the other side. He would bide his time until he got someone in front of him. The last obstacle, he was mildly disgusted to see, was a simple wall too high to hop up to. Derrick jogged to the wall, leaped up to get a grip, planted one foot, and boosted himself up.

"Well, your physical capabilities seem just fine… The next test is the last one. Let's get through it as quickly as possible and break for lunch."

Derrick's stomach growled at the thought and he found himself in agreement with The Jackass for the first time since he woke up.

"Go to Room Three, please."

The exit door opened and Derrick quickly walked to Room Three. Room Three was a quick left turn from the main hallway and looked like a small shooting range. There was a door at the opposite side of the room with a card reader that had a blue number '1' keycard graphic. It seemed that they wanted to keep him contained.

"Okay, let's see how your shooting skills have held up. Don't worry, they're rubber bullets. Pick up the gun."

To the left of the door he had come in was a small console with the butt of a 9mm sidearm sticking out. Derrick picked it up and noted how natural it felt in his hand. He studied it and a wealth of information about the weapon seemed to unfold in his mind.

"Now pick up a clip and load it."

Derrick was so fascinated by the knowledge and feelings surging through him that The JackAss' smart-ass tone failed to anger him. With smooth, practiced motion that came as naturally as breathing, Derrick slid the clip into the handgun and undid the safety.

"Now try and shoot the targets."

On his left a paper target slid out from the wall at the far end of the range. Derrick walked up to the wall and held his gun with both hands as he took careful aim.

Three shots.

Two to the heart and one to the head.

Derrick fired without conscious thought and strangely felt nothing except satisfaction that he was still a good shot.

"Good." The Jackass said as the paper target slid smoothly away. " Next I'll put two targets up. Shoot the one I tell you to shoot."

Two targets appeared; one read and one blue.

"Red." this time a single shot to the head.

The Jackass switched it up and each time Derrick scored a hit on the designated target.

"Now let's try some hand-to-hand combat." The metal shutters at the end of the range slid up to reveal a set of mirrors. "I realize you're still recovering, but I need your cooperation on these tests."

_Well, what the fuck have I been giving then? Stupid shit._

"But don't worry, we're almost done for the day. Derrick, I want you to try some basic fighting moves to test your muscle functions. Give me a quick jab."

The urge to see what he looked like was suddenly overwhelming and Derrick made a beeline straight to the mirrors as the gate opened in the waist-high wall. Derrick looked like he was in his mid-to-late twenties and was maybe one hundred, seventy-five centimeters tall. His hair was dark brown and tousled. He had eyes that were a light blue but seemed out of place on his narrow, impish face. Derrick was muscular, well-toned, but not that bulky.

_Am I handsome?_ He thought, rubbing his chin as he leaned closer, and looked into his eyes. _Yes, I am handsome._

"Hey, I don't have all day, Derrick. If you're through admiring yourself could you give me a quick jab."

The Jackass talked Derrick through a set of basic movements that unlocked a plethora of martial skill in his mind and body. Muscle-memory kicked in and Derrick began a complex routine of punch-kick combinations.

"Good job. That was the last test for the day. Your lunch is ready for you in your room. Take a break. You've earned it. Put the gun back where you found it."

Derrick returned the gun to the console and double-timed it to his room.

_Double-time? Was I in an army? Makes sense with my fitness level and how I handled that gun._

There were three items on the tray next to his bed that weren't there before. He had left the flak jacket there but the burger, still steaming, can of juice, and clipboard was new.

_The juice I get but is a burger what they give hospital patients?_

Derrick picked up the clipboard.

_Terminus One?_

That was the header of the chart. It was about a subject named… Test Subject Seven.

_What kind of jackass came up with that?_

Most of the chart was medical jargon that was totally lost on him. The test subject had been transferred from Terminus Seven on August 30th.

_What year is it?_

Derrick flipped the page and was disgusted by what he saw. On September 3rd it read: **Urination X4; Defecation X2**. Then something far more telling than that: No change in coma state. **Dosage 1200.**

_Dosage of what?_

The next page began again with a date four days later and a count of bodily evacuations. The bold type that stood out read:** Respiration improved. Brain activity and heart rate are equivalent to conscious state**. That was it and Derrick put the clipboard down secure in the knowledge they were talking about him. He swiped up his burger and took two quick bites. Derrick chewed as he mused on his situation.

A churning in his gut was the first sign that something was wrong. The room began to swim and his vision blurred except for the hallucination of a green status bar. Derrick dropped the burger and grabbed his throat as he felt the drug sapping his will. Thankfully he collapsed onto his back on his cot.

"Don't worry, we gave you a little something to help you rest. We'll continue rehab after you wake up."

_I'm gonna fuck you up, first thing._

The sound of a door sliding open came over the P.A. followed by clod of standard-issue combat boots pounding against the floor. There was the soft clack-clack of someone working the bolt of a sub-machinegun.

"Who are you?" The Jackass asked nervously.

_Looks like someone beat me to it._ Derrick thought groggily just before a burst of gunfire cut off a pathetic whimper.

A spray of blood coated the little bit of observational booth Derrick could make out. Several seconds, or minutes, later the door to his room opened and three men in body armor and standard camouflage came in. They swept the room aggressively with SMG's before they all fixed their sights on Derrick. One came up to him and lifted him by the collar of his T-shirt so the leader could get a better look. The black man holding him up looked at his ivory-skinned squad leader for confirmation. The leader looked at Derrick and then fixed a steely glare on his subordinate.

"Kill him."

They were all wearing helmets with visors but the black soldier's was opaque. The set of his jaw was grim as he pushed Derrick back to the bed. The two backed up and all three aimed their weapons.

_This is it_, Derricks thoughts were turbid, _I survived all kinds of heavy shit and this is how it goes. I can't even tell them to suck my dick. I'm so fucked._

The glass of the observational booth shattered. A figure leaped down with amazing speed and the soldier closest to the glass fell with a slit throat. A figure in black and gray combat gear spinning side-kicked the squad leader with tremendous power. He folded like an accordion as the wet crack of his chest being collapsed filled the room. The squad leader crashed into the wall with bone-crushing force. The black man fired his SMG on full auto but somehow the woman spun away from the bullets, ran onto the wall next to the soldier as he tried to get a bead but she was moving too fast. Somehow the woman turned the corner so that she was above Derrick's head just before springing from the wall and scissor-kicking the man in the helmet hard enough to break his neck with a dull snap.

The woman walked to this bedside as if taking down three armed soldiers was something she did every morning for her warm-up.

"Wow, you're a mess," she said in a smooth, sultry voice. She came closer and… he blinked slowly but she was still there. "But at least you're still breathing."

The woman waved a hand in front of his face and shook her head. She lifted him off the bed and Derrick found she was only a little shorter than he was. The woman wrapped his arm around her neck and helped him towards the toilet. He couldn't take his eyes off of her.

_Damn if she isn't hot_, he thought with a syrupy smile.

"The research lab was full of soldiers." She said, glancing up at him with big, hazel eyes as if he knew what the hell was going on.

She helped him kneel in front of the toilet.

"Okay, now its time to lose your lunch."

With that she jammed her middle finger down his throat.

_Wouldn't have done that with fingerless gloves_, Derrick thought just before heaving hamburger chunks into the toilet.

"First thing we gotta do is get out of this building. And then meet up with Glen." She spoke as he puked.

Once he was done she helped him back to the bed. Derrick's head began to clear and he wondered how the fuck he had gotten himself into the FUBAR'd situation. He looked the woman up and down. She wore a sleeveless shirt under a cloth-like Kevlar vest.

"Anyway, its good to see you again."

_Again? Fuck, I hate not having my memory._

The woman wore a 10mm sidearm in a hip holster and wore various straps about her person for additional gear. The straps in the V of her crotch especially drew his attention.

_She just killed three men in a heartbeat without breaking a sweat and all I can think about is the way the straps make her crotch look_, he thought, angry at himself.

"Who are you?" Derrick asked hostilely.

To his surprise the woman looked shocked and a little hurt as she recoiled slightly.

"You really don't know, do you?" She gesticulated with her hands as she spoke, which he found odd; "I'm Alex. I came to get you." She held out her hands as though she were grasping something. "Glen Ogawa, the chief scientist of this research center, sent me."

An explosion, close by, followed by a fire alarm, drew her attention.

"We can't stay here." Alex said as she turned back to him. "If we do, we're history." A computerized voice began to warn about something that he couldn't make out. "Derrick, you promised me you wouldn't let me die. Time for you to make good on that promise. Move it, soldier."

Alex held out her hand, the other on a slender hip, and Derrick could only stare.

_Do I have a fucking choice?_

Derrick took her hand and she hauled him on his feet with minimal effort.

"Arm yourself; they won't need 'em." Alex said as she walked towards the door.

Derrick took an SMG and nine-mil from the squad leader and loaded up on ammo from the others. He took it over to the flak jacket and packed the compartments. Derrick slid the body armor on and made a few practice swings to test the flex.

"Okay. Let's get out of here," Alex said, but another voice intermingled with hers.

"_Time to do or die, Cole. Are you ready?"_


	2. T'lan

The two fugitives quickly exited Derrick's room and headed to Rehab Room 3. Derrick held his SMG at the ready as Alex covered their rear. Strangely, the mysterious woman did so as though the formation was well-practiced.

"What-?" he began to whisper as they came to the turn in the hallway that led to the Rehabilitation Rooms.

"Shh-,"Alex came close to him then and a heady mix of sweat, as well as something he couldn't identify, filled his senses. "There's still five or six of them in this section."

Derrick nodded and carefully made his way to the edge of the corridor. No sooner had he peeked out than the soldier on guard exploded into action.

"There he is!" the man exclaimed and fired a short burst from his SMG.

Derricked ducked back behind cover, narrowly avoiding the rounds that dented the thin metal covering the walls, and Alex was suddenly there beside him. She peeked out and was rewarded with two bursts of gunfire from two different automatic weapons.

"Only two," she whispered to him. "One on the left three meters down the hall; the other two meters to the right and two behind the first."

"Got it," Derrick acknowledged and his body began moving almost of its own volition.

Derrick went to one knee, leaned out, and fired two short bursts at knee height. The 9mm rounds tore through the soldiers legs and they collapsed to the floor with shrill cries of pain. Alex swiveled into the corridor, her large handgun in one hand, and calmly put two bullets through the writhing soldiers visors as they writhed on the ground. Their helmets kept most of the brain chunks contained but the mess Alex had made of their faces was gruesome.

"Are you still breathing?" Alex asked with a small smirk on her face.

"Feels like it," he replied, taking a deep breath after glancing at the men he had just helped kill.

_Funny how I'm not sickened or anything. Just glad I'm still alive. _Derrick thought as he secured a couple more spare magazines.

"Watch out!" Alex screamed as he pocketed a ration bar from a flak jacket.

Derrick felt a boot hit him in the back and was amazed as the blow propelled him nearly three meters into the corridor leading to Room 1. He turned and saw something impossible. Alex spun like a dancer and fired her weapon as her arm was outstretched in a classic ballerina pose. A soft choking sound filled the sudden silence left by the cessation of gunfire. A single shot eliminated the choking noise. Derrick rejoined Alex and his gaze narrowed with suspicion tinged with not a little fear.

"How'd you do that?" he asked, but she was already moving away.

"We have to move. I'll explain when we have some time, I promise." Alex turned to him with those smoky eyes and Derrick relented with a nod.

"Careful," his lone ally whispered as they came to the doors of Room 3.

The doors whisked open and three soldiers stood there gaping at Derrick.

"There's Cole!" one screamed and they all opened fire.

Derrick dived to the right, grunting as he screwed up the roll and nearly dislocated his shoulder, and came up with his back to the wall.

"Follow my lead," Alex said, and went low to fire.

Derrick went high and as he fired a burst he noticed that Alex's single shot had downed a soldier. His burst was mostly absorbed by his target's body armor but one round ripped through the quickly panicking man's forearm.

"Fuck!" the soldier's pained shout was so loud it even drowned out the sound of Alex's sending a bullet tearing through his neck.

The man collapsed jerkily and convulsed on the ground as though someone had supercharged his body.

"Fuck this!" the last enemy standing screamed, as the overwhelming awe and terror he felt overrode his conditioning to obey orders.

The soldier ran towards the door but a well-placed shot from Alex sent a 10mm round up into his neck and directly through his left eye socket. He kept running towards the doors, already decorated with blood, brain, and bone chips, until he collided with them at full speed. Such was the force of impact that the soldier was flung backwards to land on his back. Of course he had been dead long before he hit the floor.

"_Come in, Charlie One…"_ a faint voice came from the sergeant's helmet.

"Take his radio. I've already got one." Alex said, reloading her weapon and restocking the nearly empty clip with spare rounds from her battle-kit.

Derrick removed the corpse's helmet and, with a faint grimace of disgust, removed the earpiece, throat mic, and transceiver. He placed the transceiver in its compartment near his shoulder and put on the mic. Derrick rubbed the earpiece as well as he could before placing it in his own ear. As he reloaded his SMG and placed the half-empty mag. on the second row of his flak vest, he listened to the radio.

"_Charlie One, this is Romeo-One-One-Five. Did you take care of Cole, over?" _There was a pause as the speaker, probably the operational commander, waited for a response. _"Charlie Four, proceed to the Medical Section. They've run into some kind of trouble, over."_

Derrick glanced at the human killing machine standing near the exit and smirked.

_Yeah, some kind of trouble._

"_Charlie Four here, roger that."_ a high-pitched, nasal voice answered.

"Damn." Alex swore. "Those soldiers will be here any second."

"Let's get the fuck outta here then." Derrick suggested and she nodded with a tiny smile.

The sergeant also had CardKey-1 on him and they made good use of it. These next halls looked identical to the last. They passed several rooms that were locked but most likely just led to other recovery wards.

An earthquake struck just as they turned the corner of a hall that ended at a turn with large glass windows. The walls grew impressive cracks as the building shook around them and Derrick began to panic. It was over quickly and Derrick tried to stop his heart from beating its way out of his chest. It had been much stronger than the previous one. He had really been afraid the ceiling might cave in. But this was Japan and the building had definitely been built with some protection against such things. Then Alex said something that dashed any hope of the earthquake being natural.

"Nexus is making its move!" the intense brunette said, frustration thickened her voice.

"Who the fuck is Nexus?"

"Come on, we gotta go."

"Shit." Derrick was getting really tired of being ignored.

A fire alarm went off and the computerized voice announced, "Fire detected. Please evacuate floor immediately. I repeat. Fire detected. Please evacuate this floor immediately."

The windows at the end of the hall had all cracked spectacularly but none had broken. They looked out on a huge courtyard decorated with gardens and trees. The heavy overcast, Derrick was sad to see, lessened its beauty somewhat. In the center of the hallway were pylons separated by small rows of plants. As they neared the halfway point, a trio of soldiers turned the corner.

"There he is! Get him!" The leader shouted but was thrown back into the wall when Alex gripped her sidearm in both hands and fired three quick shots.

The leader got one through the visor and the other in the throat. The third soldier was already ducking back around the corner. Derrick sprinted around the pylon closest to them, slid to his knees, and fired on full auto at the third and fourth members of the enemy squad. Both went down with nearly thirteen bullets apiece embedded in their bodies.

Derrick reloaded his weapon, ate a ration bar, and washed the taste from his mouth with a can of juice from a vending machine at the end of the windowed hall.

_Don't they believe in soda around here?_

Derrick and Alex moved in the direction the soldiers had come from and passed a receiving desk in front of a metal detector built into the entranceway frame. The lights in this hall were out but oddly enough the office they entered was brightly lit. The radio in the center of the table began to speak.

"_This is a repeat announcement regarding today's earthquake. At fourteen hundred hours this afternoon, a powerful earthquake hit the city of Yokohama. We will broadcast information to the surrounding areas as it become available. This earthquake with Yokohama as its epicenter was unnatural in both its origin and its size. An investigation is underway."_

The radio switched to soothing lounge music.

"We've got to move, Derrick." Alex said impatiently.

Derrick turned an irritated glare at her before heading out the door. They turned down the hall on their left towards another windowed hall with wood floors. These windows looked out into a shadowed square that was bridged by rounded corridors easily visible from their position.

_What kind of place is this?_

"Get back!" Alex shouted and pulled Derrick back just as the windows shattered under a hail of high-caliber projectiles. "It's an attack chopper."

_No shit_, Derrick thought. _Two-man cockpit, twin heavy auto-linked machineguns, twin rocket pods. I should know the name of that type of military helicopter, damnit._

The radio buzzed to life, _"This is Devil-Eight-Zero. Objective sighted."_

Alex braced with her back to the wall and yelled to be heard over the rotation of the helicopter's blades.

"Come on!"

Derrick watched as his companion cartwheeled to where a section of wall separated the window panels and immediately turned her momentum into a diving roll. Alex was brought up short by the wall that rose to block her progress. Derrick dived, tucked, and rolled behind the first section of cover. Derrick ducked down low and as close to the wall as possible.

"Damnit, it won't open!" Alex screamed at the door. "We've gotta find a way to open it or go around it!"

Alex turned back to him and eyed the hallway that Derrick was facing.

"You've got to time this perfectly, hotshot." Alex said with a challenging, manic grin as she holstered her sidearm.

Derrick's jaw dropped when Alex sprinted across his position and the heavy machineguns started spitting out tracer rounds as they sought a lock. Alex was a gray-black blur as she leaped at the wall and kept running down the corridor as if she weren't nearly horizontal to the floor. Alex cartwheeled off the wall and took cover behind a vending machine where she presumably waited for him.

_Crazy bitch_, Derrick thought with a grin as the heavy guns stopped firing in order to cool down.

Derrick sprinted down the hall as fast as he could, SMG in one hand, and he knew he only had seconds before the guns could fire again. A desk was set against the vending machine and Derrick leaped atop it. Somehow he dived _over_ the vending machine, flipped in mid-air, and landed on all fours like a cat.

"What took so long?" Alex gave him a quick grin before sprinting with inhuman speed down a hall on their right.

Derrick struggled to keep up and found himself gasping for air when he caught up with her inside a security station. She was standing by a control console examining the controls. Alex hit a series of buttons and the door began sliding up on its tracks.

"That's the ticket!"

Derrick once again found himself struggling to keep up back to the main hallway. Alex didn't hesitate and sprinted back down the hall before the 'copter saw them. Derrick couldn't keep up and dove the last four meters as the chopper opened fire. He rolled into the wall with bruising impact and Alex helped him up with one hand.

"You alright?"

"Good to go." Derrick answered, a little surprised he hadn't broken anything.

"Don't get shot!"

The next minute was spent sprinting between each section of cover while the guns cooled down. When the pilot caught on, nearly blowing Alex in half, they were reduced to worming their way the last ten meters. When it was clear they had made it to relative safety the sounds of the 'chopper faded.

"_No joy, command. Objective lost. Returning to holding pattern Alpha, over."_

"That was a close one." Alex sighed.

Derrick was still too busy trying to breathe to reply. They were in some kind of receiving area, but it was strangely empty of furnishings, that they quickly passed through. The next section of hallway was luxuriously decorated with wood paneled walls and aesthetically pleasing light fixtures. The two entered a more utilitarian hall and Derrick spotted what looked like a body in a white labcoat.

"Cole's over there!" Someone foolishly exclaimed very loudly.

Derrick and Alex dashed into the opening to the elevator lobby as one and the two soldiers were dead in seconds. Derrick checked the dead scientist for anything useful but came up empty.

"Are you hit?" Alex asked.

"When I am, you'll be the first to know." he snapped crossly and her face went blank.

There were huge '7's above the elevator doors on either side of the lobby. It was just bad luck that the elevators were unresponsive. In silent agreement they moved on but as they exited the lobby the radio came to life.

"_Sir, the building's secured up to the fifth floor. The 'quake blocked off the stairs so securing the upper floors is gonna be a bitch… over."_

"_This is Romeo-One-One-Five. Roger that. That's what they pay us for."_

There were two more bodies down the hallway on their right. One was slouched against a wall with a trail of blood and brain behind him. The other was lying in a pool of blood further down the hall.

_Probably shot in the back while he was running away. Poor bastard._

Derrick and Alex entered an office space for multiple people. They were walking besides a desk when the door opened and two soldiers ran in. Derrick opened up with his SMG sparking white as death roared from its tip and the two collapsed bonelessly from the rounds that had shattered their visors.

"Took care of them." Alex murmured and after taking spare magazines to replace Derrick's half-empty ones, they left the room.

Outside they met another pair that waited down either side of the branching hallway. Derrick made a hand-signal before he realized that he knew how and Alex nodded. She moved to the other side of the hall. A burst of SMG fire was followed by a single shot from a 10mm handgun. Down the hall on their right was the body of another scientist shot in the back as he had tried to flee.

The next room was a board room of some kind with a large desk taking up its center. What surprised Derrick was that there was a damned Xbox hooked up to the large-screen television in front of the desk. He noticed a clipboard on the desk and rushed to read it.

_Carter Science Center? So that's what CSC stands for._

According to the clipboard the center was a joint venture between the U.S. and Japan. It was supposed to research advanced technologies and their applications.

_So what the fuck were they doing to me?_

There was a room on their right that was connected by an open doorway. The wall was glass so Derrick didn't understand why anyone thought it had been necessary.

"_This is Charlie Three!"_ Someone shouted frantically over amidst the clatter of small arms fire._ "We need reinforcements on the double!"_

Another voice came over the line, _"What the hell? My gun ain't doin' shit, man!"_

Then someone screamed and there was silence.

Romeo-115 came online, _"Charlie Three, what's you status. Report!" _Silence was the only response. _"Shit… don't let those freaks out of the Annex."_

Derrick and Alex looked at each other worriedly before continuing their search for a way out. They came to an anteroom with a map next to the shutter door opposite their entrance.

"Hey." Alex said as she examined the map." This leads to another building. You learn something new everyday. Come on, let's go check it out."

"Are you always this bossy?" Derrick asked, a bit put out by Alex's demands.

Alex turned to him with a seductive smirk, "Yup."

_Now what was that about_, Derrick thought, ignoring the blood rushing to his groin.

Alex hit the switch to open the shutter door and revealed a long hallway with black and white tiles. It was probably one of the bridges he had noticed earlier.

When Derrick neared a small cart with boxes stacked on it everything went gray and static, just like on an old television set, obscured his vision. A black-and-white cat seemed to appear from nowhere… or did it come from behind the cart? Its coat glowed in an otherworldly fashion but it was probably just the overheads. Then the cat looked Derrick right in the eye, meowed, and burst apart in a spray of brilliant motes of light.

_Fuck me_. Derrick shook his head in disbelief.

Derrick continued down the hall but was brought up short by an intense burning sensation all over his body. The static washed over him again but this time it left the world terribly brighter than before. Everything was various shades of an otherworldly white light. Derrick held his hands out before him and whimpered as first his skin and then his flesh evaporated like water before his eyes. The burning sensation quickly passed but by then Derrick's hand was nothing but shining, white bone.

_How can I still be alive?_

Alex came around and looked into his eyes.

"What's wrong?"

"I-" Derrick couldn't find the will to say anything and merely shook his head as he continued down the hall.

_Whatever they've done to me must have fucked my brain up. This shit feels too real to just be a hallucination. Why me? Damned egghead shits._

When Derrick reached to open the shutter at the opposite end of the bridge, a cool feeling enveloped him, and the static took the ghostly white pallor from his surroundings. He looked at his hands and, much to his relief, the flesh had returned.

"Let's keep moving."

"Yeah," he said, wanting to be far away from the creepy corridor.

The two entered a cafeteria where the first thing to greet them was a man's body lying on top of a woman. He had obviously been trying to protect her but the killers had been all too thorough in their work. There were half a dozen people in the dimly lit café. Most were slumped at their tables or chairs at the bar. These were just civilians and rage blossomed in Derrick's heart.

They entered a dark hallway where a keycard panel awaited them. Derrick swiped the card and the first thing they saw was a soldier's headless corpse. When they got closer they saw that the soldier wasn't headless. Something had pulverized his head with such power that there was little left but chunks of helmet and skull on the wall.

"Uh-oh." Alex said, her voice nervous. "Looks like we aren't the only ones fighting the soldiers here."

"Good, maybe that'll take some pressure off us."

"You're right about that." Alex agreed as they made their way through half a dozen bodies.

_Shit. They all looked like they were killed by hand. What could do that and not be wounded unless they were walking tanks. Fuck, I hope they're gone._

The next hall was littered with even more bodies with twisted limbs and pulped heads. Suddenly a body flew from an adjoining hall to smash with bone-crushing force into their hallways wall.

"What the fuck?" Alex said, her voice was definitely nervous now.

Together they cautiously rounded the corner and saw a soldier backing away from around the corner at the far end of the hall.

"Die, muthafucka!" He screeched and opened up on full auto as his target slowly rounded the corner in pursuit.

The man had to have been two meters tall and thickly muscled. What was odd about him was that his skin below the shoulder looked black and hard like obsidian with traceries of brilliant white light that brightened and dimmed almost like a heartbeat. There were no discernible clothes on his body at all. Something sparkled centimeters from the man's torso and it seemed to protect him from the barrage of metal flying at him faster than the speed of sound.

"T'lan Warriors!" Alex shouted, sounding on the verge of hysteria, "How can this be?"

Derrick aimed his SMG but Alex pulled him back just as another T'lan Warrior charged through the space he had just vacated. Alex spinning sidekicked the T'lan in the back with insane grace and speed. The force of his own momentum, plus Alex's kick, sent the brute slamming into the opposite wall headfirst. His shield must have protected him because the bastard immediately began trying to free his head.

"You can't fight them yet, Derrick. Run!"

Derrick needed no further encouragement, fear was starting to catch up with him, and something told him she was right. The voice that had been in his head just before they left the Rehab Section came to him as they sprinted into the room the T'lan had come from.

"_If you don't have the right tool then find out what it is and get one, Derrick. Whatever it takes!"_

It was another office that had not fared so well in the earthquake. The exit was blocked by large pieces of concrete that had fallen from the ceiling. A bookcase had wedged itself near the frame and there was enough room for them to slide through.

"You first." Derrick offered Alex.

"You go! I can hold them!" Alex said, and drew the knife she kept in a sheathe on her lower back.

Derrick wanted to protest but both T'lan Warriors were charging towards them. In three seconds flat he was through.

"C'mon, Alex!"Derrick shouted and out of nowhere a T'lan flew into the rubble.

The impact broke the bookcase and the escape was blocked.

"We'll have to split up!" Derrick could just make out Alex's head over the rubble. "Stay off the radio! We'll find each other again! Go, Derrick!"

Then Alex raced off being pursued by bullet-proof freaks with super-strength.

And Derrick was alone.


	3. Alone

For several moments, all Derrick could do was stand there and stare at the debris strewn doorway.

_I've got to keep moving._

Derrick turned and saw the body of a scientist with his back against the wall. A wide trail of blood led from the rubble to the wall. It was then that Derrick noticed his pants were covered in blood smears. There was nothing he could do about either his pants or the dead man so he kept moving. The next set of doors he passed through led to a spotless, gray-tiled hallway filled with high-security doors. Of course each one he saw read 'locked' on their status panel. The one at the end, just past the turn in the hall, was actually open.

Derrick entered a small airlock that was malfunctioning because the exit opened as soon as he stepped in. An emergency klaxon was the first thing he noticed, quickly followed by the red emergency lighting that gave the room a surreal quality. The room was a research area of some sort if the equipment visible in the sunken workpit was an indication. Derrick looked to his right and saw a clipboard on a desk. He quickly went to pick it up. It read:

**T'lan Warrior Research**

**Status Report #101**

**Prepared for Terminus 4 Executive Meeting**

**We recommend continued research as follows:**

**Development of an energy weapon that operates on the same wavelength as the T'lan shield.**

**Purification of T'langen**

**Administration of T'langen to animal test subjects.**

**The staff considers the administration of T'langen to humans to be too dangerous and have protested. Therefore I wish to propose termination of the clinical trial.**

_Guess they did give it to humans. Wish I had one of those guns though._

There was another clipboard on the desk in the workpit. It was T'lan Warrior Research Report #26. It detailed the scientists' discovery of the chemical they believed was linked to a T'lan Warrior's shield.

_T'langen? That's not very imaginative_, Derrick thought with a smirk.

There was a locked door on the other side of the workpit that was the only exit. Derrick reached forward to hit the button to open it and the pasty hand of a T'lan Warrior crashed into the reinforced glass door. His heart somewhere in this throat, Derrick jumped back, caught the pits of his knees on the low railing around the workpit, and fell the meter and a half to the floor. He took most of the impact on his right shoulderblade and the pain nearly made him blackout. With his breath stolen from the impact, it was all Derrick could do to lay there and not whimper in pain. To his surprise, the pain faded to a dull ache in less than a minute. When he stood and moved his arm around Derrick was stunned that he had full range-of-motion.

"Fuck you." Derrick told the T'lan as it continued pounding on the reinforced door.

There was another door, facing the right wall, on the right side of the set of rooms Derrick was trying to enter. He was more cautious this time as he prepared to press the button. His SMG was at the ready but Derrick had already seen how ineffective it was against the T'lan so he wondered why he even bothered. The door whisked open and he stepped into a morgue. Derrick swept the room in a 120-degree arc.

The T'lan Warrior in the next room walked into view through the open door connecting them, saw Derrick, and charged towards him. Derrick turned just in time to block a haymaker thrown by the T'lan that had been hiding in an alcove beside the door. His SMG took the brunt of the blow, bending in his hands, but there was still enough force to propel Derrick off his feet. He rolled back through the doorway into the main room. The first T'lan was still bearing down on him like an enraged bull. Derrick rolled to the side and the damn thing charged into the wall hard enough to leave a dent in the metal paneling.

_How the fuck did the door hold it? _The thought was incongruous but Derrick's legs never stopped moving.

The second T'lan was coming at him as he raced toward the other entrance. Derrick ducked beneath a clothesline and kicked the T'lan in the lower back to send it over the guardrail. Derrick made it into the room and locked both doors leading in. The first T'lan hit the door and now Derrick could see the spider-web cracks it was causing with each strike.

_Strong, but dumb as hell_, Derrick thought as he flipped it off.

There were two clipboards on the examination table in this room. Derrick took them on his way to the door on the other side of the room. It opened to reveal another airlock with a manual wheel hatch that Derrick would have expected on a naval vessel. Derrick quickly undogged it, wondering at the ease at which it turned, and pushed it open. He closed it, tightened the wheel, and used his damaged SMG to jam it up when the T'lan finally did break the door down. Then he took the time to read the clipboards.

The first detailed the transfer of T'lan Warriors from Terminus 4, whatever that was, to the Cellular Biology Research Lab.

_Guess that's those two bozos._

The second was T'lan Research Report #84. It told about how a T'lan's shield let it protect itself against physical attacks and collision below certain speeds and force.

_No shit._

The interesting thing, at least to Derrick, was that the shields were nullified when the two came into contact.

_Maybe they need to fuck, too. That's sick. Can't believe I just thought that._

It was probably the report that led to the proposed development of an energy weapon.

_Lot of good that does me._

It was then that Derrick noticed his green bar had gone down by nearly a quarter. His ribs hurt now and drawing in breath was painful.

_Guess I know what that means now. I'm totally out of my mind._

Derrick kept moving though and walked down a hallway with more locked doors. He turned a corner, saw an open doorway, and nearly shit himself when a T'lan Warrior came charging at him. Derrick ducked, swept his left leg forward, and took the T'lan off his feet. His leg tingled as though a horde of ants were having a party in his pants as soon as he made contact with the shield. Ignoring the pain, he raced down a darkened hallway toward an elevator lobby where another T'lan was waiting. Derrick slid beneath a haymaker, their fighting technique seemed extremely rudimentary, and charged to a shuttered doorway. Both doors to his sides were locked and the T'lan were coming.

Just when Derrick's heart was about to burst a strange calm came over him. He knew he was probably going to die in a moment no matter what he did so what was left to fear.

The lead T'lan ducked his shoulder to ram Derrick and, with the grace of a dancer, Derrick spun around to plant a sidekick in the small of the T'lan's back. The second one actually tried a ponderously slow thrust-kick. Derrick stepped inside and to the left. He thought the T'lan registered surprise as Derrick spun him around and thrust-kicked the T'lan in the stomach. The T'lan stumbled back and collided with the Warrior that was turning around from its collision with the shutter.

Derrick turned and sprinted back the way he had come. An elevator turned and the doors slid open. Derrick ran in, hit the button, and absolutely nothing happened. An access panel above him was open and Derrick wasted no time in leaping up. He was on the roof in no time flat. The elevator doors closed a second before they were shattered by a T'lan.

By then Derrick had already closed the panel.

Someone screamed above him seconds before an explosion rocked the shaft. Derrick looked up and saw that the doors to the floor above him were open and a fire was raging. A burning body, a man judging from the screaming, jumped into the elevator shaft. Derrick backed up as the man hit the roof of the elevator headfirst and broke his neck with a wet snap. A jet of flame spewed from the open doors to hit the ladder leading to the upper floors. Fortunately it stopped at fairly regular intervals. It was an odd thing to see; he wondered what was causing it, but as long as he could get past it he didn't care that much.

_Alex'll head up._ Derrick thought and, as she was the only one not trying to kill him, it sounded like a good direction.

Avoiding the fire was easy but touching the metal burned his hands enough that the green bar was reduced a little.

_Just like an FPS. What the fuck._

The ladder was broken a floor up but boards had been placed across the shaft. Small worklights had been set up and a tool kit had been left. Derrick ignored the kit and made his way into the large ventilation duck. It was so high that he could move through it in a crouch instead of crawling.

Romeo decided to make his presence known as Derrick made his way through the ducts.

"_Watch out for Cole."_

Derrick had to make his way through a series of turns before he came to a high wall. He climbed it and soon came to another. This area had a hard hat laying next to a took kit with a flashlight on top of it.

_Wonder what happened to him?_

The next duct was low enough to warrant a belly-crawl.

"Over there!" A voice echoed through the duct.

"Help!" A different voice shouted.

_We all could do with that._

Derrick was crawling down a vent duct when he saw the figures of two scientists through a grate at one of the intake junctions.

"On the roof of the Main Research Center!?" One asked in shocked amazement tinged with relief. "How many can it hold?"

"…Fourteen?" a different voice answered uncertainly.

"Better not tell everyone. Otherwise we won't be able to get out of here."

_Escape chopper. Gotta remember that._

"I said don't tell them! Hey!"

There were sounds of a struggle and then someone was repeatedly slammed into the wall above the grate.

"Stupid asshole!" The one who wanted to keep quiet fled and left his companion slumped against the grate.

_Gotta love the human race_, Derrick thought with a grim frown.

The vents led to a room that looked like it was used for file storage. To his left, Derrick found the beaten man. The back of his skull was crushed and brain was coating the wall in a wide smear.

Derrick shook his head, took the can of juice sitting on the desk beside the corpse, and downed it in one go. To his surprise the green bar refilled and he found that he actually felt better. The pain in his ribs faded to a dull ache and it didn't hurt to breath any longer.

_What the hell's in this shit? All natural ingredients, huh. Yeah, right._

Derrick followed the trail of the killer scientist. The next few halls were dimly lit but he was quickly become accustomed to that. Every door he passed was locked but that was becoming old at this point. Strange warmth in his right forearm was proving distracting though. The warmth suddenly flared into an intense burning sensation that made Derrick stop in his tracks and forced out a few pained grunts. He grabbed his throbbing, burning forearm and held it out before him. Derrick couldn't believe what he was seeing.

Crackling white light surrounded his arm up to the elbow.

The light quickly faded, along with the burning, and he realized he was most likely hallucinating again.

One turn later he realized he wasn't.

The pain came back tenfold and so did the intensity of the light. It was all Derrick could do not to curl up into a ball and whimper like a dog. Somehow he kept his feet until the pain subsided. He wiped his tear-filled eyes and was startled to find that his right arm was covered in bright white vein-like traceries up to the elbow. They bored a startling resemblance to the ones on the T'lan.

_This day just keeps getting better and better._

Derrick looked up and saw the scientist scampering into a room just as another colleague was broken like a doll by a lone T'lan Warrior. The man closed the door and Derrick grimaced when the red lock panel was lit.

"Open the door!" Derrick shouted as he jogged down the hall.

There was little fear until the Warrior charged at Derrick much faster than the others. Derrick barely managed to sweep the brute and the jarring felt like it would break his leg. Derrick stood and ran for the door. It didn't open even when Derrick ran into it palms first.

"No way, man." The sweating scientist looked him right in the eye as he backed away shaking his head. "Fuck that."

"You fuck!" Derrick roared and turned at the sound of approaching footsteps.

Derrick ducked beneath a haymaker that shattered the glass window and instinct planted his fist into the T'lan's gut. His right arm's traceries flared an instant before contact. A sound like crystal breaking filled Derrick's ears as sparks flew from the contact. Instead of his hand meeting hard energy shield, it met hard yielding flesh.

The T'lan Warrior backed up and clutched his gut in almost comical surprise. Derrick planted a snapkick into his face and there was that sound again. This time Derrick noticed the T'lan's shield flaring out just before his boot made contact with the Warrior's face. Bone crunched and the T'lan stumbled backwards with a grunt. Derrick threw a left hook, right hook, left upper-knuckle combination that took the T'lan off its feet. Derrick was on it instantly, throwing flat-palms into his face while clutching its throat with the other hand, and screaming out his fear, frustration, and fury in cathartic release.

Finally he stood and thrust-kicked the T'lan's skull in. Whitish blood flowed, the T'lan wailed in unearthly fashion, and then died.

_I killed it_, Derrick thought numbly.

Derrick held up his glowing fist, and after a moment, began to laugh.


	4. Power

"How did you do that!" The quavering voice of the scientist was like a splash of cold water to Derrick. "You killed that T'lan Warrior!"

"Open the door." Derrick ordered the sniveling coward; his voice was calm despite the rage that bubbled within.

"S-sure. I'm sorry. I was fucking terrified."

The door clicked when the scientist unlocked it. Derrick entered and turned to fix the scientist with a baleful gaze.

"I…" The dirty, terrified man stuttered as he backed away from that terrible stare. "I didn't want to die!"

"So you let him die!" Derrick snapped, pointing back towards the door. "You were going to let-" Derrick grabbed the scientist by the throat and pulled him close, "- me die!"

Derrick lifted the man against the wall with the single arm, the effort was considerable but that he could do it at all was strange, and began to slowly squeeze the life from the thrashing civilian. Then, almost without conscious thought, Derrick let him go and turned to leave. The scientist fell to the floor in a boneless, quivering, sweating, coughing heap.

"Next time-," he said as the exit cycled open, "-I won't be so merciful."

Derrick stepped into another gray hall and paused several meters down. He had never felt so good, so strong, and so powerful. His head swan with the sensations.

_How _did _I do that? _He thought as he gazed at his forearm, which had returned to normal. _What the fuck did they do to me? No time for that now. Have to get the fuck outta here._

At the end of the hall was another transparent security door with a keycard panel. Derrick entered the next hall and blinding pain made the world vanish in a white haze for a moment. The green bar, which had lowered by a tenth, remained constant. Somewhere in a part of Derrick's pain-addled brain came the knowledge that the bar was actually longer.

Derrick spun with the blow to gain distance from the T'lan that had sucker-punched him. The T'lan hesitated for a moment, evidently not used to a human surviving even a glancing blow, before lumbering towards Derrick. Derrick deftly avoided the thrust-kick, spun the T'lan by its outstretched leg and straight-punched it in the chest. The traceries flared to life with a vengeance as his fist made contact. The T'lan flew back into the wall hard enough to crack it. Derrick followed up with a running, spinning sidekick to the throat. A sickening crunch echoed down the hall and the T'lan died with a keening, ethereal wail. Derrick wiped a small trail of blood from his mouth and was surprised at how quickly the pain had faded. His health bar-

_It_ is _a damn health bar!_

Derrick's health bar was still down by a little more than ten percent. Then the T'lan body disappeared in a blinding white flash that left behind a tiny, floating red ball that crackled like lightning.

The word 'Access' appeared in his upper right visual field.

_Fuck it._

Derrick held out his hand and when it was within a few centimeters of the energy ball a surge of power passed through him. His health bar filled to its maximum capacity in concert with the power surge.

_Damn if that won't be useful._

Derrick shook his head with a rueful grin and continued down several more halls a bit more cautiously. In this way he was almost prepared when a firefight broke out in the wide hall at the end of the corridor he was creeping down. The crystalline sounds accompanied by the automatic fire of sub-machineguns told him what kind of firefight it was.

_TFH. Totally fucking hopeless._

Derrick peered around the edge of the corridor and shook his head at the sight of three soldiers firing at a lone T'lan.

_Too bad your Intel's_ all _fucked up._

The first soldier died from a thrust-kick he didn't even try to duck. His neck snapped so fast that the man didn't even scream. The T'lan shoulder-blocked a soldier, snapping his ribcage as though it was not encased in Kevlar, and the soldier began to die with ragged whimpers. The final soldier turned to run and had his face pulped against a wall. Derrick had meanwhile sneaked up behind the melee. Once the last soldier was finished Derrick was only two meters behind the T'lan. Derrick leaped, brought the heel of his boot into the crook of one knee and dislocated the T'lan's kneecap with a hollow crack. The T'lan dropped to one knee and Derrick cradled the Warrior's head in his arms. With a single convulsive movement Derrick snapped its neck.

Derrick ignored the energy ball and instead procured another SMG. One of the soldiers actually had a pair of grenades that he happily clipped to his vest.

_My lucky day_, he thought with no small amount of chagrin.

Derrick continued down the wide hallway towards another security door. The next turn after the doors had windows on the left wall that looked out onto what might have been the main road of the facility. The sky was still heavily overcast with stray rays of sunlight valiantly fighting to reach the ground.

"_This is Bravo Two. Solus is here!"_ The voice sounded young and slightly panicked.

_Who the fuck is Solus?_

"_Kill him!"_ That was Romeo-115 again.

"_Yes, sir!"_ Bravo-2 sounded as though he was saluting.

Derrick was passing a section of hallway littered with broken glass when an explosion rocked the building. Derrick instinctively looked out the broken window to find the wing ahead of him spouting a cloud of flame and black smoke from a few stories above him.

"_Did you get him?" _Romeo-115 asked, slightly anxious.

"_Blew him to bits, sir!"_

_Yeah, and an entire floor to do it._

"_There's not much left here of the floor either! There's no way he survived-"_

Bravo-2 was cut off by what sounded like a door being kicked in. There were several moments of silence before Romeo-115 came back.

"_Bravo Two, respond… Shit! Romeo-One-One-Five to all units! Bravo Two is down! All units retreat from the fifteenth floor immediately!"_

_Guess I'm not alone on the most wanted list. What kind of tough motherfucker can survive that? Hope he's gone by the time I get over there._

Derrick continued to make his own escape with a small shudder. The pair of doors leading to the next wing was blocked so Derrick entered a security office on his right. As soon as he entered, the phone on the second cubicle of the large desk began to ring. Derrick picked it up; his hope that is was Alex slightly shocking to him.

"Is this Security? All surviving personnel should head for the roof. There's a chopper waiting. You'd better hurry up there yourself. I'll try calling the other departments."

"Okay." Derrick said, trying to sound like a security guard, despite not having a memory of knowing any.

Derrick put the phone back and quickly located the switch to open the fire doors. Static washed through his vision only a few meters down the hall. A cat meowed and the ghost-cat appeared at the intersection several meters from him. It walked out of sight and when Derrick reached it the damned thing disappeared into drifting motes of light. Derrick cursed softly but continued on because there was little else he could do. Then the static came back so bad that he couldn't even see the health bar. It passed, as it had before, but this time it left a dry heat in its wake. Sandy grit seemed to cling to Derrick as he walked down another hall. Brilliant sunlight blinded him as he neared what looked like the end of the corridor. That was wrong and he knew it but he had to keep going.

Derrick kept walking until he stepped into a desert that went on without end.


	5. Search & Rescue

The desert was not empty.

At least it was not in the immediate area. Derrick shaded his eyes with one hand while the other gripped the SMG at his right hip. The sun glare off the near-white sand felt as though it would sear his eye out momentarily. A hot, dry wind gently blew fine particles of sand across the landscape. It most certainly did not matter how gently the wind blew, it still left Derrick with that gritty feeling that came with sandy environments. Every part of him not exposed was also sodden thanks to the moisture-retaining properties of his clothing. The parts that were exposed felt dry, brittle, and as though they would crack if prodded hard enough.

_Hopefully this is just another hallucination_, Derrick thought as he spied someone's boot protruding from behind a large military supply crate on his left.

Derrick went to investigate and passed a doorway on the wall to his left. The exterior was rusted, but the interior was the CSC décor he had come to loathe. Derrick went inside and turned two corners only to come back to where he had first entered the desert.

"Fuck." He whispered.

All the doors had been locked and the corridors blocked.

Derrick made his way over to the corpse behind the crate and came to a halt as he got a look at the body.

"_I hate the desert, Cole. Fuck me if I don't always get picked for the Desert Ops." _This voice was gruff, high-pitched, and terribly familiar.

Derrick shook his head and started checking the body for weapons. Even if he was hallucinating it never hurt to take precautions. There were several more grenades, nine-mil clips, and SMG ammo that filled Derrick's flak vest. He studied the terrain with a gusty sigh. It looked like an abandoned outpost that someone had rolled over. A broken comm. tower dominated the immediate vicinity, supply crates of varying sizes were scattered about, and the burned out hulks of vehicles sat as lonely testaments to the ephemeral nature of man's creations.

_Only one way. Forward. At least that's the direction I was headed anyway._

Derrick passed the skeletal comm. tower and headed for a lonely section of ruin. Amazingly enough it had a damn juice machine set against it. Derrick pushed the button and… something flew past his ear with a high-pitched buzz. A thin line of fiery pain accompanied it and Derrick turned to see a giant bug coming in for a landing. It had a carapace disturbingly similar to a T'lan Warrior's. Derrick touched his cheek and his fingertips came away bloody. He drew his sidearm and fired just as the bug leapt into the air on translucent wings. The damn thing was at least as big as Derrick's hand. One shot and the T'lan Bug exploded in a gory mess.

Derrick holstered his sidearm and went to get his drink. The health bar had been reduced somewhat but the juice brought it back up to full.

"Good juice." He said to the can with a grin before tossing it over his shoulder.

There was a dead tree to his left that looked like it led towards another ruin. As Derrick neared it he became aware of that same high-pitched buzzing. It was so loud he doubted it was a single bug. Derrick topped a small dune meters from the tree. At least eight T'lan Bugs were swarming over a man-shaped mass. Then they came hurtling towards him. Derrick raised his SMG and several shorts bursts later he was standing over the body.

"_Go, Cole! Go!" _This was the first voice he had heard in his head what seemed days ago. _"It's my time! Go!"_

The words caused tears to well in Derrick's eyes.

_No time for that!_ He reprimanded himself angrily.

The next set of ruins had a closed door that had a good, old-fashioned handle.

_Here we go._

Derrick touched the door, static washed through him, and he was back in the CSC. He was cool, dry, and there was no sandy grit stuck to him. The extra ammo and grenades he had obtained were still with him.

"Hell of a hallucination."

Talking to himself was a bad habit in a combat zone but Derrick found himself doing it the longer he was on his own.

_Must be the stress._

It was a large utility room with several carts opposite the door he had come in. There was a set of elevator doors to the right but they were out of power.

_It's the stairs then. Funny thing is, I'm not even tired._

Derrick opened the door and entered a wide stairwell lit by long, halogen lamps on every landing. He looked below him and was shocked to see rubble choking the landing beneath him. With a grim frown, he turned to ascend the stairs. A hacking cough echoed down to him.

_Probably someone trapped on the floor those assholes blew._

Derrick ran up at least six flights before coming to an open door.

"Is anybody there!?" The coughing was replaced by a strained, hopeful voice.

"Yeah! Where are you?" Derrick shouted, jogging through the doorway.

It was another utility room but the power was out and only the light from the stairwell allowed Derrick to see.

"Is somebody there!? You've gotta get me outta this hellhole!"

_I really shouldn't be doing this_, Derrick thought as he reached for the handle.

The man began banging on the door frantically, "The whole fifteenth floor's on fire! Please, you gotta hurry!"

The door was locked and the man began to cough liquidly.

"Hold on! I'll find a way to you!" Derrick shouted but he doubted the man could hear him.

Derrick returned to the stairwell and climbed to the next floor. Of course the landing above was blocked by heavy slabs of concrete.

_Great._

Derrick opened the door into a utility room for the third time in five minutes. This time the door was unlocked and Derrick entered a scorched hallway. The concussive force had even caused stress fractures in the walls and ceiling.

_How much goddamned C4 did they use?_ Derrick thought incredulously as he stepped into the hall.

Unfortunately he failed to notice how damaged the floor was until an ominous crack made his footing shift unexpectedly.

"_Shit_!" Derrick shouted just before darkness enveloped him.


	6. Ring Of Fire

Somehow Derrick found himself lying flap atop a solid slab of concrete. The power was out on this level too but the fire provided plenty of illumination.

"Hey!" Derrick shouted as he stood and checked his weapons. "Where are you!?"

Derrick turned around, saw the door that had been jammed shut, and then saw a mangled hand sticking out of the ruble only half a meter from him. The dazed man felt hysterical laughter bubbling up for a second.

"_Focus, Cole!"_ The grizzled voice was back again.

"Sorry, pal." Derrick said, his voice thick with guilt.

The air was thick with smoke but only enough to make him cough like a thirty-year smoker.

_Gotta keep moving._

Derrick had to move deeper into the fire storm in the hopes of finding a way out. Thankfully the hall was relatively clear except for small fires caused by burning equipment. Derrick turned the corner and a small explosion shook the floor as a jet of flame shot from an open doorway five meters down the right wall. It passed quickly and Derrick sprinted past it. He was only two meters from the next doorway when another flame-jet roared from his left. He covered his face from the searing heat and leapt back. The flame dissipated as quickly as the first and Derrick sprinted forward.

"Piece of ca-"

Derrick's spreading grin was quickly checked by an explosion from a door at the end of the hall. The primary scents in the air were heat and smoke but underneath was the sickening smell of burning flesh. Three figures stumbled, vainly struggling to scream as the flames seared their lungs, through the open doorway.

"Damnit." Derrick muttered, because there was only one thing he could do.

Derrick drew his sidearm and with three carefully placed shots he ended their agony. He was careful not to get to close to their flaming corpses as he made his way down the left hall. The horror that was slowly building was put on the backburner but Derrick knew he was close to the breaking point.

An emergency shutter had failed to close off this section of the floor. According to a floor sign it was where the halon gas control room was located. The shutter was only partially closed and when Derrick crouched he could see the lab-coated body of a female researcher. Derrick wormed his way under the gap and felt for her pulse. She was deader than frozen shit, but there were no obvious signs that he could see because of the-

Derrick looked up and started coughing continuously. The entire hall ahead of him was obscured by a cloud of thick, noxious smoke. Derrick hastily crawled back to the relatively fresher air in the burning section. He stood, coughed, and was surprised that after the crap in the other area he could breath this smoke in easier.

_I'm just full of surprises._

Derrick back-tracked and turned right down a hallway, past a sparking cable hanging from the ceiling, and turned right after discovering the rest of the hall was blocked.

The T'lan Warrior almost appeared as startled as Derrick was.

Derrick took the prize when the T'lan came at him with a flying thrust-kick through a waist-high fire.

_Great, they're fire-proof._

Derrick spun to the right and nearly into a fire. He stuck one hand against the doorjamb to stop his progress but the metal scorched his palm. With a cry of rage, guilt, and pain, Derrick turned and delivered a crushing right hook to the T'lan's temple as it turned back to him. The Warrior hit the ground like a ton of bricks but Derrick wasn't done. He stomped the T'lan's face until it dispersed with a flash of light. Without thinking Derrick stretched his badly blistered hand towards the energy ball that had appeared. The reddish light lingered in his hand and when it passed the skin was undamaged.

"Definitely useful." Derrick laughed as he reflexively curled his hand into a fist.

With a running jump. Derrick cleared the fire without igniting his ass. There was an impassable wall of flame a few meters down the hall from a wide entryway on the left. An explosion echoed from that entryway just as Derrick turned in that direction. Out of the ragging inferno stepped two T'lan Warriors.

_Great. They're teaming up._

Derrick divested himself of his SMG, tucking it into a fire-free corner, as the T'lan Warriors charged at him in the heavy, lumbering run that was quickly becoming very annoying. Derrick waited for them calmly, knees bent, hands up in a semi-defensive position, mind focused on victory. When the first T'lan was three meters away Derrick sprang off his feet to deliver a snap-punch to the bridge of its nose.

The Warrior stumbled back but its partner dodged and came at Derrick with a powerful haymaker.

_Can't dodge!_

Derrick threw up his left arm in a classic guard position and stepped into the swing. Despite his best efforts the force of the blow propelled him off his feet. Derrick hit the wall on his shoulder, kicked off, and spun to deliver a vicious reverse heel-kick to the T'lan's chin. Such was the force of his blow that the T'lan flew backward into the wall as though invisible strings had been pulled. Something body checked Derrick in mid-air with bone crushing force. He felt as though he floated for ten meters because he rolled to a stop at the entrance to the wider hallway. Derrick stood and a sharp, stabbing sensation in his ribs told him some internal damage had been done. The smell of smoldering cloth told Derrick that his flak vest was damaged as well.

The Warrior that had body checked him was still charging while its partner was rising despite a copious amount of white fluid streaming from its mouth. Derrick, despite his ribs screaming in protest, launched himself forward. He slid to the ground after four strides and thrust his foot into the Warrior's kneecap. There was a pop that was audible over the fire and the T'lan's momentum was halted. Derrick pushed himself standing with a single hand, not hesitating at the ease with which it was accomplished, and connected with a powerful left elbow to the T'lan's throat. It stumbled back a few steps and then fell with a single hand reaching towards the ceiling.

The remaining Warrior was suddenly there and throwing a wild left hook. Derrick moved faster than conscious thought and his right hand raced to intercept the vicious attack. With gritted teeth Derrick's palm hit the sweeping forearm of the T'lan. The force of the blow flowed up his arm and into his shoulder to cause stomach wrenching pain. Derrick ignored it and capitalized on the fact that he had blunted the T'lan's aggressive momentum. Derrick dropped his blocking arm down, short-jabbed the T'lan in the throat with his left hand, then a straight punch to the sternum to drive it back. His hands moved in a blur that he could barely discern the movement of. The T'lan Warrior stumbled backwards with an almost confused expression on its face. Derrick crouched down and sprang up to deliver a brutal, rising uppercut that catapulted the T'lan's cranium into the ceiling. It rebounded, bounced off the floor, and landed with the boneless grace of the dead.

Derrick dropped to his knees and took in heavy breaths of the fiery air. Even that hurt as the stabbing had only gotten worse after his exertions.

_Next time_- Derrick got to his feet with a pained grunt, -_Divide and conquer._

Both T'lan had left energy spheres crackling where their corpses had once been. Derrick reached the first, significantly larger than the other, and gingerly stretched out his injured arm. His entire body convulsed with the jolt of energy. His health bar, down to nearly a quarter, increased to full as he felt bones reknitting themselves. There was pain but it was overridden by the massive endorphin rush the energy seemed to catalyze. When it had passed Derrick felt tired but oddly refreshed.

_Like a proper hour of fucking._

Derrick grinned at his most improper thought as he retrieved his SMG. The area the T'lan had emerged from was probably used for receiving visitors. It had a center furnished with burning chairs, couches and end tables. The only clear area was to the left. Derrick headed in that direction with sweat rolling off him in earnest now, and passed a reception desk. Just past the desk was a tiny alcove with vending machines. They had been damaged in the explosion that had caused the emergency shutter that blocked the hall off. Derrick continued around the edge of the receiving area until he came to an alcove with telephones in it. Just at the entrance was the body of a researcher.

It had on a gas mask.

_That's just too convenient._

Derrick didn't hesitate to remove the mask and, with only a mild grimace of distaste, put it on. It was dirty and the bulbous filter weighed his head down but the relief of being able to take full, deep breaths was like magic.

_Now I can get to the halon._

Derrick raced back to the partially closed shutter and practically dived through it. Once on the other side the smoke was so thick Derrick could barely see two meters in front of him. He moved with slow, steady steps and was thankful to find that the control room was only two turns into the hallway. Finding the control panel and activating the halo system was simple after that.

Derrick removed his mask and his eyes instantly went to the can of juice sitting in the crook of storage shelves to the right of the door. Derrick slid to his butt and began slowly drinking the juice. His SMG remained balanced on his knee with the business end trained on the door. The door would remain closed until the gas smothered the fire.

_Time for a quick power nap._

Derrick closed his eyes and several seconds later was asleep.


	7. Reunion

The door beeped and Derrick nearly fired a burst into the wall. He stood, took a sip from the water tube at his shoulder, and exited the room. As he made his way back to the main section, the last traces of sleep left his mind. The corridors were dark and foreboding. The faint echo of a combat boot hitting the floor made Derrick hesitate as he came to the junction that led to the partially closed shutter.

A burst of SMG fire shattered the dead calm of the fire-blackened corridors. Several concrete chips scratched his face but thankfully none hit his eyes. Derrick spun backwards and braced his back against the wall. He unclipped a grenade, pulled the pin, and rolled it as hard as he could down the corridor. One bullet passed so close to his hand that he thought his knuckles would catch fire.

The grenade detonated and at least one man began to scream in agony. Derrick spun into the corridor on one knee and let loose several bursts at knee height. The haze from the grenade slowly cleared and Derrick was prone on the floor. Amazingly enough, it seemed as if he had gotten them all. He took a deep breath and quickly reloaded his weapon. The screaming had continued unabated and now it sounded as though another voice had joined in. Derrick drew his sidearm and cautiously advanced on the four figures near the open shutter. Two were dead and the remainder were clutching their knees as they writhed in slowly spreading pools of blood. Derrick took a firing stance and lined his shots up. His finger tightened on the trigger but he just couldn't do it. Something inside him said it would just be the wrong thing to do.

"If I were you-," Derrick said as he holstered his sidearm, "-I'd worry about getting outta here instead of tracking my ass."

Then Derrick continued towards the receiving area. This time he moved more slowly and heard the nervous whispering of the soldiers lying in wait. Derrick slid to the floor against the left wall and crept his way towards the open area. He gently eased the pin from a grenade but kept his thumb securely pressed against the clip. With his free hand he drew his sidearm.

Such was the stealthy nature of Derrick's approach that the soldier watching the left wall barely registered when Derrick was fully in view.

_Well, it being dark as fuck doesn't help._

"It's Col-!" One 9mm round right between the eyes silenced the soldier in mid-exclamation.

"I've located Cole!"

At least two more soldiers ran at Cole from the left. They were met by his grenade when it went off almost directly under their feet. One flew into the corridor, SMG spitting rounds, and hit the wall in front of Derrick with a splat. At least two rounds connected with his torso and a third stitched a line of fire across his right shoulder. The soldier was still alive but one arm was hanging by a thread and the leg on that side was even worse. Derrick had no trouble putting a round through this one's head. After several seconds of recovering from the brutal impact of the SMG rounds, Derrick stood with only a slight grimace.

_Almost forgot about fighting humans for a second._

There was a small roll of coagulant and antibiotic-treated bandages in a pocket on his pants. Derrick quickly tore a bandage of suitable length off and bound his wound. Strangely enough, it already looked as though it was clotting nicely. With a shrug, Derrick entered the reception area and saw that the emergency shutter down the left hall was open. He went down that hall and one of the fancy, wood-panel doors was the first on the right. It opened to reveal an office with the richer décor the building seemed to have in plenty. There were also two bodies in the room. One was directly across from Derrick and looked as though he had crawled from the door on Derrick's right. The other had apparently tried to crawl to the desk only to expire with his fingertips mere centimeters away.

Derrick shook his head and made his way to the door. He entered a more typical hallway and the first thing he noticed was the dead body of a soldier five meters to his right. Just before Derrick reached the body, automatic bursts of SMG fire made him crouch instinctively.

"It's not Solus!" A man shouted. "It's the T'lan!"

"Aw, shit!" Another voice exclaimed. "After all the explosives we threw at 'em?!"

"Gawddamn monsters!"

Derrick came to the end of the hall and cautiously peered towards the gunfire. It looked like a huge hole had been blown in the center of the room. It had even blown away the ceiling and exposed the floor above.

_That was a lot of explosives!_

The T'lan held a third soldier off the ground with one hand. The Warrior contemptuously launched the wailing soldier at a ruined wall. There was a wet snap and the soldier flopped onto the ground.

"Shit!" The soldier in front of the T'lan shouted just before receiving a shoulder-block that put him on his back.

The Warrior wasted no time in smashing the soldier's skull in with one stomp of its foot. Brains, blood, and bits of bone burst out of the crack in the helmet. With gore coating its foot, the Warrior turned and slowly walked towards the remaining soldier. His ammo spent, the man could do nothing but back away. Derrick wanted to act but knew the solider would probably take him out even after being saved. He sidled out of cover just as the Warrior delivered a vicious left hook that tilted its victim's head at an obscene angle.

Derrick cinched the strap of his SMG so it was secured tightly to his chest and the Warrior turned around. It looked surprised when Derrick came towards it aggressively with his arms slightly extended and his palms open. The Warrior still tried the same hook that had proven so effect moments before. Derrick took a quick-step just out of range, grabbed the T'lan's wrist, yanked his larger foe forward, and planted a leaping knee into its gut. The Warrior doubled up and Derrick used the momentum to flip it over. Still retaining his hold on the T'lan's wrist, Derrick placed his other hand on the Warrior's elbow, while his foot rested squarely on its neck. With a convulsive pulling motion the T'lan's neck and head were left at an obscene angle in a bit of poetic justice.

_Turnabout's fair play._

Derrick let go of the T'lan and searched the freshly killed bodies. He found more ammo for his SMG and sidearm as well as several grenades. When he turned back, he saw that the T'lan had left a parting gift.

_Weird how that's almost normal_. Derrick thought as the energy ball filled his health meter. _I _am_ going crazy._

Derrick looked around at the relatively empty blast-zone and was about to resign himself to backtracking when his gaze fell on a pile of rubble with a steel beam sticking out of it. The word 'Access' appeared again.

_What the hell._ Derrick shrugged and grabbed the beam.

It came out with surprisingly little effort and Derrick leaped back to avoid being crushed by the rubble it had supported. When everything settled, he was surprised to find a convenient ramp for him to ascend to the next floor. Derrick climbed with a disbelieving shake of his head. He found himself on a balcony-like space where sunlight filtered through cracks in the wall and ceiling. There was a door but of course it was locked. A doorway on the other side of the hole didn't have a door to speak of but there was no way to get to it. Derrick walked around the circular hole towards the door and nearly jumped out of his skin when a juice machine that had been perched precariously on the edge fell with a deafening clang.

_Hmm, didn't even notice it sitting there._

The juice machine had revealed a small crawl space beneath the partial wall.

"Oh, that's un-fucking-believable." Derrick muttered as he dropped to his belly.

Once he was through the entryway, Derrick crawled on his hands and knees to the doorway. At the end he stood and walked through as though he did this kind of thing everyday.

_I might _have_ done this every day._

There was a hole in the floor that was easily jumped. It led to a plush hallway, with thick, grey carpet instead of wood-paneling. The last door on the right was green-lit and Derrick entered a stylishly decorated office. The door on the right wall was locked, but a window had been busted out.

_Fuck that_, was Derrick's first thought but was quickly followed by, _They'll be sending out search parties. Goddamnit._

Derrick hopped onto the windowsill and cautiously poked his head out. The window ledge was half a meter wide and looked sturdy. The wind wasn't enough to blow him away either. It was weird because he remembered sunlight coming through the cracks but the sky above was still clouded.

"Shit." He mumbled just before stepping outside.

Derrick looked down and was glad to see he didn't have a fear of heights. It was a _long_ drop. He was looking down towards the annex tunnel where he had that first, severe hallucination.

_Ah, memories._

Derrick chuckled and began carefully walking along the ledge. The only direction was back towards the hole but Derrick figured he could walk the perimeter until he found a safe place to break-in. Then something moving caught his eye.

"Great." Derrick whispered as he caught sight of a woman hanging from a pipe on the wall running perpendicular to his.

Derrick was about to shout when he remembered the attack chopper was still prowling the area. It was all he needed for some grunt to hear him and call in the big dog. Derrick hurried to where his wall ended and hers began. His pace was slower than he would have liked but falling to his death wouldn't help either of them.

_Why do I even care?_ He wondered just as he slipped around the corner and a section of lodge fell away beneath him.

Derrick had come to the section damaged by the explosion and had been too preoccupied to notice. His heart stopped as he fell- only to be brought to his knees by the jarring impact of unexpectedly meeting a second ledge. He stood shakily and smiled in relief.

_That's one way to sink to her level_. The joke was bad but Derrick was just happy to be alive.

There was a spotlight shining on the building face as he turned the corner that would let the woman see him.

"Help me!" She shouted then screamed hysterically when she saw his gear.

"I'm not gonna hurt you! I'm coming!"

That only made her scream louder. Derrick leapt onto the small ledge she was hanging from under an overhand. The closer he got the more frantic she became.

"Hold still or you'll fall!" Derrick roared as her screams turned to wracking sobs.

One hand lost its grip and the woman was dangling. She turned, her arm trembling, and looked at Derrick with a puffy, tear-strewn face. Then her other hand slipped and she plummeted with a piercing wail.

"Goddamnit!"

Derrick made it to the other side and dropped the dozen centimeters to the ledge. Shouts and screams from the courtyard below called his attention. Soldiers were systematically mowing down fleeing white-coated civilians. Someone was even throwing grenades.

_No wonder she was hysterical_. Derrick thought angrily.

Derrick spied an open window at the end of the wall perpendicular to this one. Soon he found himself jogging along the ledge as sure-footed as a goat. He even jumped the small gap between walls. It was as though his feet were awakening to the memories of past activities. The window led to what Derrick had been hoping for since the last juice break.

A bathroom.

After quickly urinating, which he had done in a stall sitting down with his SMG trained on the door, Derrick washed his hands in front of a long mirror. He looked into the mirror and grimaced at the sight. Crusted blood covered his face while the whitish blood of T'lan Warriors liberally coated his body armor. Derrick took a minute to splash his face and was surprised that there were no scabs beneath it.

_I do love those energy balls... That sounded very gay._

Derrick laughed quietly and left the bathroom. He was entering the green-lit door just past the T-junction when it occurred to him that he had passed at least three bodies without a second glance. The bathroom wall had been smeared with a trail of blood from a man that had been shot there.

_I must be PTS-fucked._

Derrick opened the door and stepped into a locker room. It smelled of musty leather and didn't look as though it held anything of interest. He made his way quickly to the door on the right wall. He opened the door and there was suddenly someone there holding a big gun to his face. With lightning reflexes Derrick brushed aside the wrist and drew his sidearm. The barrel was pointing at the figure's waist when cold metal touched his neck.

"Hey, Alex." Derrick said with a grin.

"Derrick!"


	8. Solus

"I can't believe it! You're okay!"

Alex grinned quickly with relief and Derrick felt himself answering in kind. She certainly looked better than he did. Except for a small, singed spot on her left pant leg Alex looked the same. Apparently his condition didn't escape her notice.

"What happened-" Something crashed loudly enough to divert their attention. "We'll talk later. Come on!"

Alex turned and sprinted through a small office that had been thoroughly ransacked. The next section of room had a large pile of assorted office furniture to the left of the entryway.

"He's coming." Alex said with the first hint of true fear in her voice that Derrick could remember hearing. "We'd better hide!"

"Who's coming?" Derrick asked, checking his SMG. "Whoever it is, we can take him."

"Not yet, we can't. Please, Derrick-," Alex looked around calmly despite her anxiety, "-in here."

Alex made her way to the pile of office debris, which Derrick saw had a hollow beneath it, and gestured for him to duck inside. Such was the serious nature of Alex's expression that Derrick acquiesced with a nod. He crouched down and crab-walked into the tight suit. Alex followed suit, her eyes trained on the entryway, and stopped when her thigh touched his. Before Derrick could begin to appreciate the contact, there was a crash of glass followed by a muffled croak. Alex put a hand to his shoulder, her grip firm with suppressed fear, and leaned close.

"Don't move."

Derrick nodded, licking his lips at the sight of her big, hazel eyes, and turned his gaze to the doorway. An office chair partially blocked his view but it was not enough for him to deny what his eyes showed him. The partition, heavy and solid, fell in with a clang as the struggling body of a scientist was carried into view. A man, at least he looked like a man, belonged to the hand that held the man aloft. He was tall, maybe a little taller than Derrick, and despite not being overly muscled he held the man up with seemingly very little strain. His hair was a brilliant shade of white. Derrick's jaw dropped as the man's bare chest came into view. Small patches of the chitin-like skin of a T'lan Warrior dotted the man's chest. Below the waist, what little of it Derrick could see, was identical to a Warrior.

The man walked out of Derrick's view, there was a harsh cracking noise, and then the body of the scientist partially collapsed their hide. Both he and Alex ducked down closer together. For once Derrick's mind was not focused on lascivious thoughts. This man radiated an invisible, undeniable aura of power. The very top of his head came into view and Derrick felt Alex tense. Derrick's own muscles tensed as well in preparation for a fight just as the phone rang.

"Hello?" Someone shouted through the speaker. "Hello?"

The man bent down and picked up the receiver.

"We're taking the helicopter out of here! If you can, get to the roof now! Hey can you hea-"

The man crushed the phone with one hand and then ran out the door. After almost a minute, Alex turned to him and breathed a quiet sigh of relief. Derrick was surprised to see that he was resilient enough to admire the view as Alex preceded him out of their hide.

"Yeah." She said as they both stood in front of the door that the mysterious man had taken. "That was definitely Solus."

"You know him?" Derrick asked, suddenly suspicious of her knowledge of what exactly was going on.

"Yeah, well, I know _I_ can't beat him...," That almost made Derrick shit his pants to hear that admission. "Sounds like there's a helicopter on the roof. That's our only ticket outta this place."

"Yeah, but that scary motherfucker heard too." Derrick pointed out, making Alex stop on her way to the door.

"Yeah, well we'll have to avoid him, hotshot. Come on."

"I love it when you call me that." Derrick grinned as he followed her out the door.

Derrick's grin disappeared when he saw the only way forward was the collapsed hallway on their left. The upper floor had been exposed but despite the rubble it was still four, maybe five, meters up to the next floor. Alex cocked her head to the side before she sprinted into action, ran alongside the left wall, kicked off that onto a slab of concrete, cart-wheeled off the slab and landed on the floor above. She turned to Derrick with a small smile.

"Show-off." He laughed and walked up to the blackened edge of the ceiling/floor.

"Grab on." She said, and bent down to offer him a hand.

Derrick leaped up, missed her hand on purpose a few times with a grin, and then yelped as she grabbed his wrist with bruising strength. With a small grunt of effort, Alex hauled Derrick up as she stood while maintaining a crushing grip on his wrist. Derrick had no choice but to plant his hand onto the floor and push himself to his feet. She helped him to his feet with a tiny smile.

"Goddamn! How'd you get so strong?"

"When you've got it-," Alex slapped him on the shoulder with the back of her hand, "-you've got it. Let's go."

"Alright." Derrick said, rubbing his shoulder.

Alex ran forward and Derrick followed behind her. He had not gone more than three meters, when the intense pain in his forearm returned. It drove him to his knees but Alex turned the corner without noticing. The light crackled around his forearm for several seconds before subsiding along with the pain. Alex's shout shot Derrick to his feet as the sounds of furious hand-to-hand echoed down the corridor. Derrick sprinted to the corner, slowed down long enough to assess the situation, and nearly threw up with sudden dread.

Solus had Alex around the neck in the same position as the dead scientist. They were almost directly in the center of an observation deck with ceiling-to-floor windows on two sides. Several small benches had been overturned as a result of the brief fight that Alex had put up. Solus tossed Alex carelessly aside like an old toy. Hoping against hope, Derrick let loose a short burst with his SMG. The crystalline tang of a T'lan shield crushed those hopes. Derrick cinched the strap of his SMG and went forward with his fists ready. The dread had left him and only focused intent remained.

Solos raced forward with blinding speed to Derrick's left. Derrick twisted and got his arms up just in time to block a spinning snap-kick. He thought his forearms might have snapped like twigs as Derrick's feet left the floor. It seemed as though he tumbled endlessly until he came to rest a few meters from the window behind him. Derrick was on his back, shaking his head in an effort to clear it, and cursed silently as he realized Solus' hand was darting for his throat. Solus' hand was cold like ice and possessed an irresistible strength. The grip was not enough to crush Derrick's throat but it felt as though doing so would take only a little more effort. Derrick grabbed the offending hand by the wrist and hammered the palm of his free hand into Solus' elbow-joint. Pain flared in his hand, it was like hitting a steel beam, and Derrick tried bringing his elbow down into the side of the elbow. It felt like Derrick shattered his elbow in the attempt.

Solus cocked his head at Derrick, luminous blue eyes giving him an otherworldly air, and suddenly they were moving. Derrick couldn't even take a deep breath before his back slammed into the reinforced window hard enough to crack it. For a moment Derrick thought his skull had been split but no; the black spots popping up in his vision were the results of a lack of oxygen. Solus looked at Derrick quizzically and Derrick felt the grip on his neck began to tighten.

_This is it_, he thought, as his eyes were drawn to Alex's feebly struggling form.

Solus' head went down, almost as if he was straining to hear something, and Derrick was suddenly on his ass looking at Solus' ankles. Solus turned, flexed his knees, and burst through the thick ceiling as though it were tissue paper. Derrick held his throat, coughed hoarsely, and wondered why he was still alive. After a minute he stood, rubbed his forearms, and was surprised to find that there were no lingering aches. His health bar was down a little but other than that he felt fine. He walked over to Alex and saw that his partner was already getting up.

"Why'd he leave?" Alex croaked, rubbing her throat gingerly.

"Hell if I know. It looked like he got a message."

"Maybe his objective wasn't to kill us. Anyway, let's get the fuck outta here before he comes back."

Derrick grinned, "Amen to that."


	9. Falling

"_What was that? Open the shutter!"_

The barked order that came over the radio stopped them in their tracks. There was a loud click that was followed by a grinding sound that filled the room as the massive shutters that blocked the bridge that led to the next building opened.

"Double time it." Derrick said and Alex nodded.

Before the shutter had fully risen, Alex was darting forward with weapon in hand, and Derrick was right behind her. They had only taken four steps when Alex came to a halt, grabbed Derrick by his vest, and spun them both behind the cover of a thick, stone plinth in the middle of the corridor. A microsecond later the sound of a .50-caliber, emplaced machinegun filled the space with a terrifying noise.

"We're sitting ducks out here!" Alex screamed close to his ear, and normally Derrick would have enjoyed have a woman pressed up against a solid surface, but now was not one of those times. "Can you throw a grenade?"

Derrick thought about it and shook his head, "No! I'd have to expose myself to chuck it!"

"What the fuck are we gonna do!?"

Pieces of masonry, some disturbingly large, had begun to fall from the plinth. Soon the machinegun would eat right through and they would be mincemeat.

"Somebody better think of something!" Derrick looked into her eyes as she spoke and was shaken by the absolute faith he found there.

Faith in him.

"Here!" Derrick removed his SMG and handed it to her. "Let loose a burst, blind-fire, and hopefully that'll give me enough time to chuck one!"

"Okay!" Alex replied but she still seemed a little shaken by their encounter with Solus.

"It's been fun! On three! One!" Derrick unhooked a grenade. "Two!" He placed his forefinger in the pin. "Three!"

Alex stuck the SMG out and let off a sustained burst. Derrick whipped out from cover, everything oddly surreal, and pulled the pin. He reared back, took a quick-step forward, and threw. Unfortunately a round grazed, and a .50-caliber graze wasn't something to laugh at, Derrick's ribcage at the instant of release. The grenade sailed about three-quarters of the way across the sky-bridge before detonating. Ignoring the blood that was steadily pumping from his side, Derrick reached for another grenade, and a .50-cal round tore into his thigh. Luckily it had not hit dead-center or his leg would have been shattered, but it was enough to drop him to his belly. For a moment Derrick thought he would be able to crawl back to safety but a ribbon of impact divots began to sweep the floor. Even if he had made it there was little chance Derrick would have lived. His health bar was in the red zone and every second he lost more blood that edged it even closer to zero.

_Looks like this is it. I never even got the chance to_ try to_ fuck her._

Derrick held his hand up instinctively as the divots came within a meter. Pain flared in his forearm, far worse than before, and quickly spread to his entire body. The crackling white light that issued from his arm was also brighter. The pain lessened somewhat but only because it had spread. Derrick felt his wounds close and came close to fainting when his health bar refilled. Then the crystalline sound of a T'lan Shield filled his ears and he looked around wildly for the threat. It was only the faint sensation of pressure, like getting hit by snowballs through a winter jacket, which made him look forward.

Derrick's vision was intermittently obscured as several .50-caliber rounds were stopped millimeters from his face by the honeycomb design of a T'lan Shield. A smaller bar had appeared beneath his health bar and had gone down fractionally with each hit.

_Fuck me if I expected that._

Derrick rose lithely to his feet and sprinted towards the gun. There could be no hesitation from amazement, Derrick knew that in his gut, but he did retain enough sense not to make it easy on the gunner. He careened from side to side on his way down the bridge, sometimes running in an all-out sprint only to dart to one side when the first round hit his shield.

"He's coming straight at us!" One of the soldiers practically screamed.

"That's impossible!" Another answered and then Derrick was leaping over the long barrel of the emplacement.

Derrick came down with a boot on the head of the soldier manning the weapon. He rode the soldier's head down, drew his sidearm, and fired twice into his enemy's visor. Tiny impacts, lots of them, on his shield drew his attention to the right. The remaining pair were firing their SMG's as they slowly backed away towards the sky-bridge. Derrick raised his sidearm but then a familiar handgun boomed and both fell to the floor with startled croaks. Alex walked up to Derrick with a wide grin, but before she could say anything the elevator door chimed. Derrick held out his hand and Alex tossed him the SMG. He crouched, finger ready on the trigger, and at the first sight of military-issue boots he began firing an entire magazine into the opening doors. When the doors fully opened, two soldiers bullet-riddled bodies were revealed to be slumped in slowly spreading pools of blood.

"Derrick-," Alex brought his attention back to her, "-show me your hand."

Derrick secured his SMG and held out his right hand. Alex grabbed it by the wrist with her right hand and ran her left across the forearm. The calluses on her fingertips caused, for the first time that day, an entirely enjoyable sensation to crawl up his forearm. She met his eyes briefly before returning to her intense scrutiny of his forearm.

"Your powers are coming back, aren't they?" Alex returned her gaze to his eyes as she let his arm go and he took it back reluctantly. "The Derrick I know has got to be in there somewhere!" Alex grabbed him around the shoulders and began shaking him.

"What the fu-!"

"Wake up!" Alex shouted before letting him go with a frustrated grunt. "Damn!" Alex turned and walked away with her forearms pressed to her head. "Patience, Alex, patience!" She turned back to him. "You'll get better. You have to."

"Okay, Alex." Derrick tried to be reassuring. "Let's go."

Derrick went over the elevator and was somehow not surprised to see that it was now without power. The massive doors opposite the bridge were locked.

"Hey, Derrick." Alex called from the wall to the right of their entrance.

Derrick immediately saw what she was calling him about. Someone had been playing amateur electrician with a fuse box. There were a number of circuit panels… or breakers; he really had no idea what they were called. He did know that there was only one cord plugged into the breaker in the upper right corner and the other was dangling with exposed wires. Derrick leaned closer and "Access" popped up.

_What the hell_, he thought and disconnected the cord.

"Do you know what you're doing?" Alex asked, her breath hot in his ear.

"No," Derrick answered and plugged the cord into the adjoining port.

The shutter leading to the sky-bridge closed and the doors opposite began to slide open.

"Piece of cake!"

While the doors opened Derrick secured a new clip, several grenades, and a couple of ration bars from the corpses. Alex did the same and once the doors were fully open they confidently entered the hall. Derrick went first, though he was still on edge, but was ready to dive behind cover in a second. He didn't want to test his newfound abilities and find out he had been dreaming. They looked to the left and discovered two soldiers staring at them in shock.

"It's them!" One shouted, only to have his shout end in a gurgle as Derrick fired several bursts from his SMG.

"Check those doors, Alex." Derrick said, as he went to make sure of them.

Alex mumbled something before trotting off down the opposite end of the hall. Derrick was reloading his SMG when she returned.

"It's locked."

"Of course it is." Derrick said, dejectedly. "Guess we go there."

Derrick nodded in the direction the soldiers had been guarding. The doors opened and they stepped through. It was then that Derrick began to seriously question if this all was a dream. He moved automatically as his mind circled around the dreadful possibility. He and Alex moved down a dead-end hall with a large room on the left. Derrick entered and took out soldiers with a magazine-eating automatic burst. Alex found the switch to open the door in the other hall and they raced back to it. Down another hall that led to a door through which was another, albeit empty, maintenance room. The elevator there was locked-down, too. Then another stairwell. The only thing Derrick could seem to think about was his increasing belief that he was dreaming. There was one other possibility that he had made light of, but that was far too troubling to take seriously.

The sounds of booted feet stomping their way down the stairwell got his attention. Derrick put a finger to his lips as he turned to Alex and then the two began to creep up the stairs. In this kind of situation you simply had to be more silent than your enemy.

"Cover me!" One of them shouted and Derrick could only shake his head.

"_If you spot the enemy, report immediately."_ It was almost a shock to hear Romeo in his ear after so long.

Together they crept up two flights of stairs before Derrick spotted the helmet of a shoulder on the landing directly above him. He was walking up the stairs backwards so they could check both landings at the same time. Derrick signed for them to go on three and ticked the numbers off on his fingers. On three, they leaped the last four steps as they twisted to land with their weapons trained above them. There was another soldier three meters to the first's right.

"Got 'em!" Alex yelled and Derrick immediately fired on the first soldier who was still bringing his weapon up.

Alex's handgun barked once and the second was down as fast as the first.

"Squinty, Jack, what the fuck's goin' on!" Someone yelled from near the top of the stairwell.

"Double-time." Derrick whispered to Alex.

The pair raced up the stairs and stopped a landing below the top. Derrick unclipped a grenade, pulled the pin, and lofted it over the rail.

"Shit!"

Then the grenade went off and the only sound was the fading echo. There were two bodies that were quickly searched for ammo. Alex even found rounds for her sidearm.

"Do you hear that?" Alex asked, and Derrick paused to listen.

Derrick grinned, "Sounds like a 'chopper."

Alex grinned back and Derrick opened the door. They stepped into another maintenance elevator lobby, then through a maintenance room, and finally through a set of double doors that led to the roof. A chain-link fence blocked the way to the left but that was not the way they needed to go.

"Look!" Alex said as she pointed to the right.

Just visible, past one of the small ventilation structures that dotted the roof, was the tail-rotor of a helicopter. Alex raced forward and Derrick chased her marvelously shaped posterior like a hungry puppy. He followed her across a tiny catwalk, over an exhaust pipe, and they stopped ten meters away from the center of the helipad. Several scientists were fighting for a place on the already overcrowded helicopter.

"How do you-?"

"Oh, shit!" Alex cut him off and Derrick was inclined to agree with the expletive.

The attack 'chopper was back and as they watched in horror it fired a rocket at the civilian helicopter. Derrick and Alex both dropped and put their hands over their heads as the rocket blew the helicopter to bits. Something flew over their heads and with a tremendous crash hit the exhaust pipe. Derrick raised his head and cursed at the sight of the main rotor assembly blocking their way back.

"C'mon!" Alex yelled and began sprinting for cover.

Derrick wasted no time and seconds later the attack 'chopper began hosing the area with high-caliber machinegun fire. Somehow they sandwiched themselves between two buildings before the 'chopper got a look.

"_Devil Eight-Zero to Romeo-One-One-Five. We have reacquired the objective. They're on the roof, over."_

"_You know your orders."_

"_Yes, sir."_

"Let's go!" Alex barked as soon as the 'chopper disappeared from view.

Together they raced underneath a high catwalk and then all hell broke loose. Several soldiers appeared out of nowhere and began firing. Derrick pushed Alex behind cover and held his arms up in front of him. Nothing touched him as he charged the startled soldiers. The area was crowded with ventilation machinery and provided plenty of cover. Derrick killed them all with precise bursts and moved into an open area with another catwalk on the far right. Several rounds pinged off of Derrick's shield, bringing his attention to the left just as Alex shot the soldier point-blank in the temple.

"Catwalk!" Derrick yelled and raced for the last soldier.

The ominous sound of the attack 'chopper brought him up short. It appeared over the soldier's head like an avenging angel.

One with rockets.

Derrick held his hands up in front of him and the world disappeared in flame and tinkling crystal. He rolled, his SMG staying with him by virtue of his strap, and he began getting shakily to his feet. He leaped away at the tell-tale whistle of a rocket launch and the concussion knocked him over the edge of the roof. Derrick grabbed the edge with both hands and laughed bitterly.

_Looks like this is finally it._

His shield energy, odd to think of how naturally these things came to him now and wasn't that an odd thing to think just before he died, was down to nothing. Derrick didn't think he could hold on for very long. Alex was there just as he lost his grip and grabbed him by his right hand. The attack 'chopper appeared over her head and she looked back with a glare. She produced a rappelling line and spike from her kit and secured them into a surface out of his sight.

"You ready?" She asked, her expression intense, and his only response was a tight grin.

The inevitable rocked was fired and Alex jumped. Somehow she pulled him close as the rocket detonated. The weightless feeling of freefall was as nothing compared to the elation of her intense focus being entirely on him.

"Beautiful."


	10. Possible Future

For a moment Derrick's sight was obscured by trees. His body broke a multitude of small branches before the back of his thigh collided with a thick one with bone-jarring force. He lost his grip on Alex's hand and tumbled through the air.

Then the ground claimed him and its embrace was not gentle.

When Derrick's vision cleared of dancing spots he found Alex staring down at him. It was no surprise to him that she looked as though she had landed on her feet. From what Derrick had seen he strongly suspected she had, in fact, landed on her feet as light as a feather.

"Derrick!" She shouted, her brow slightly furrowed in what he assumed was worry.

"Yeah." Derrick croaked, rising unsteadily to his feet.

"Well, looks like we're both still in one piece." Alex turned to survey her surroundings. "This place…. This is the Botanical Research Facility! Perfect."

Derrick looked around and saw that they were in a small courtyard with a bell-shaped statue at its center. Benches sat within small alcoves on their left, where a juice machine was also located.

"Glen is underneath this building in a research lab called Terminus Four."

Derrick turned to her at that announcement.

"I read a report that said a batch of T'lan Warriors came from there!"

"They should be gone by now." Alex's face clouded with an emotion Derrick couldn't readily identify. "Glen'll help us, you can count on him. Let's go find him."

Her voice was so lost that Derrick instinctively reached out to grip a rock-hard shoulder.

"We'll make it." Derrick said, in as confident a tone as he could manage after nearly being blown to bits.

"Yeah." Alex game him a tiny smile. "There's got to be a way to the lower levels in here."

"Let's move it soldier."

That got a wide grin out of Alex which caused heat to bloom low in Derrick's gut.

"Let's get some juice first." Alex suggested and Derrick nodded in agreement.

They were leaning against the soda machine, drinking their juice quickly when Derrick noticed a purpling bruise on Alex's temple. To his astonishment, the bruise faded to nonexistence by the time Alex finished her drink.

"What?" She asked, turning to him with narrowed eyes.

Derrick grinned, "Good juice?"

Alex nodded, "Yup. Ready?"

"Yup."

The fence blocking the courtyard off wasn't chain-link but had circular holes cut in it. Derrick reached for the gate handle and the dreadful sound of the attack 'chopper filled the air.

"Cover!" Alex shouted, and Derrick dove towards the wall on his right.

The rocket detonation picked him up and tossed him into the wall but he was back on his feet in moments. Alex was at the gate before him and gave him a quick once-over.

"Run for it!" Derrick shouted as the chopper came around for another pass.

Alex was like a bolt of dark-gray lightning and this time Derrick was right behind her. They entered a wide pathway with stone statuary down the middle. Two soldiers stepped out from cover and were immediately downed by Alex. The path went left and then right a short distance later. Only five meters from the last turn was another fence and there was essentially no cover.

"Jump it!" Alex shouted and darted towards the fence.

_Aw, shit, here we go again_, Derrick thought as he pushed himself as hard as he could.

The terrifying sound of heavy machinegun fire drowned out the 'chopper blades and Derrick's pounding heartbeat. Stray fragments of concrete began to pelt the back of Derrick's legs. Alex was at the fence, clearing the three meter height with an impossibly high and graceful front flip, before Derrick had moved two meters. Derrick leaped, and was amazed that his waist was nearly level with the top of the fence, and grabbed the top with both hands. Using his momentum he attempted a tumbling roll over.

Unfortunately several high-caliber rounds forced an abrupt end to those plans.

Derrick imagined a football felt the same way when it was punted. His shield made three disturbingly bass, crystalline sounds and then he was airborne. He hit the ground hard and rolled for several meters. A hand snagged his angle and swung him around.

"Up!" Alex roared, grabbing him by the back of his flak vest.

Derrick scrambled to his feet. Only ten meters ahead of them was the relative safety of a reception area just inside a set of steel doors. Together they raced towards the doors as the attack 'chopper came around for another pass. They were only three meters from the doors when a rocket launch echoed towards them. As one they dived towards the doors, which opened automatically, only to have the explosion blow them like fluff and partially collapse the entrance. They landed and rolled uncontrollably into the lobby.

To Derrick's surprise he was on his feet while Alex was shaking the cobwebs loose. Derrick was about to offer his hand when a now familiar meow echoed in the room. To their left was a receptionist booth and the ghost-cat appeared on the counter. It made is if to leap down only to disappear in characteristic fashion.

_I guess it's hallucination time_. Derrick thought with more than a touch of exasperation.

Derrick silently offered Alex a hand and looked her over. A livid bruise was forming on one cheek but otherwise she was unharmed.

"We should get moving." Alex said, after shyly avoiding Derrick's gaze.

Derrick looked around and his eyes fell on a juice machine.

"First a drink."

Derrick got two cans and tossed one to Alex. He downed his in two convulsive swallows. To his shock Alex did the same.

"What?" She said just before she gave a delicate, lady-like belch, and shrugged.

Derrick grinned and watched as her bruise faded away to nothing.

"I have something on my face?"

_She can't be human, but then again, what the fuck am I now?_

"Nah, you're just disgustingly hot, so I tend to stare." Derrick shrugged, "Which way are we going?"

Alex frowned at Derrick and pointed to the door next to the receptionist's booth. Derrick checked his weapons and preceded Alex out of reception area. As soon as his hand touched the handle his vision went staticky. When he stepped into the next room he found it utterly decimated. The ceiling had caved in at several spots and ethereal moonlight illuminated the interior. Bright motes of light floated serenely through the air. A few meters into the room stood an intact pillar. A red mark was just about eye-level and, most disturbing of all, looked like a face. The words 'Access' appeared on his HUD and Derrick reached out to touch the mark. A loud moan startled him just as he touched it.

The face began to move.

"He's having hallucinations." It said in a man's voice just before the pillar crumbled.

"No shit." Derrick muttered, and hoped over the remains of the pillar.

Just to the right, around a large pile of rubble were two more pillars. The loud moans had become quite frequent but Derrick learned to ignore them. He reached out.

"Don't you think she's acting like herself more than before?" The left pillar said in the same voice as the first one.

"Her?" The right pillar asked in a deeper voice.

The pillars both crumbled and Derrick continued on his way. The next one wasn't blocking his way but Derrick held his hand out anyway

_Maybe they'll give me something that's actually fucking useful._

"They're spreading out all over the world!" a panicked man shouted.

The next was blocking his path.

"He is out final hope." This was the voice from Derrick's dream.

The final pillar did not have a face but Alex's knife was embedded in it. Derrick reached out with a trembling hand. The blade looked dirty and rusted with the passage of time as well as disuse. He snatched it out and held it before him.

"You don't want me to die, do you?" Alex's voice, unearthly in its resonance, filled his head.

The knife slowly disappeared, starting from the blade tip, in sparks of incandescent light.

Derrick left the room with a heavy heart filled with dread. Static washed over him and he was in a non-descript hall. Alex stepped in front of him.

"Is everything all right?" Her lovely eyes were full of suppressed worry.

"I'm fine. Let's go."

_No, I don't want you to die, Alex. I'll kill 'em all before I let that happen. I'll die before I let that happen. I promise._


	11. Terminus 4

Alex led the way through automated double doors on the wall opposite the door they had entered by. An electronic display above the doors read "Staff Only". They entered a small, bare elevator lobby. Derrick pushed the call button and they waited in silence.

_Christ! I feel like a virgin at an orgy!_

Both had their weapons trained on the doors as the elevator pinged to a stop. The doors opened and Derrick was relieved to see that it was empty. They quickly entered and Alex stabbed the button for the lowest level. The silence was companionably but Derrick inwardly berated himself for not taking the opportunity to engage Alex in conversation. It didn't help when she looked at him as though he were some kind of nutjob.

The elevator came to a stop. Derrick and Alex raised their weapon in preparation. They emerged into a large area that looked as though it was used to move heavy equipment. It was an eerie place and made Derrick nervous but Alex seemed to be made more at ease by the atmosphere of the place. Alex led the way through a high entryway on the right. To their left, through the entryway, was an enormous vault. Alex raced up to the control panel on the left wall. She punched in a code with swift surety.

"Ah, what a relief, they didn't change the security code." She turned to him with a rueful grin. "They haven't changed it in fifteen years. Glen is somewhere in the lab."

The vault quickly opened its dual walls while Derrick was listening to Alex talk. Once they stepped in, the doors behind them closed but the ones before them did not open.

"It's an airlock of sorts. The pressure's a little iffy down here!" Alex had to raise her voice to be heard above the hiss of air and the roar of klaxons.

The vault doors opened and they stepped into another cavernous room. Half of the room was sunken at least a story and was filled with large storage containers. That half of the room was divided by a fenced path that led to the exit. The doors slid open to reveal a wide hallway with the bodies of two scientists slumped against the right wall between a pair of doors. Derrick signed for Alex to check the closest while he quick-stepped towards the more distant. He knelt down and a quick look was enough to deduce what had killed him. The man's chest was riddled with entry wounds.

For a moment the world seemed to still and Derrick felt a warm pressure against his back. He turned and Alex crouched down beside him as quietly as she always seemed to move.

_What the fuck was that?_

"So… soldiers?" Alex suggested, her jaw bulging with teeth grinding anger.

"Well, unless bullets have learned to fly by themselves, and developed a taste for scientist meat."

"Ha-!" Alex clapped a hand over her mouth and glared at him, "That's not funny."

"Sure it wasn't." He felt a smirk coming and did nothing to suppress it. "Let's go."

Alex took the lead through the nearest door, sidearm fully extended, and Derrick followed with his SMG in the ready position. This room was empty, the door to their left led back to the previous room, and Alex headed for the exit in the center of the opposite wall. Down a long corridor, which gently curved to the left, they walked next. It ended in a set of doors that did not open automatically. Alex signed for Derrick to cover the door as she went to the control panel. Derrick went to one knee several meters in front of the doors and at his nod Alex slapped the button.

"Clear." Derrick said softly, though he aggressively swept the room once passed the threshold.

Alex came in on his left just as alert. Spent casings littered the floor and a few spare magazines had been left behind. Derrick quickly helped himself to them as Alex waited by the next set of doors.

"We may have a fight on our hands. You ready?" Derrick asked.

"Always."

Alex opened the doors and directly at the bottom of a sharp incline was a soldier in black combat gear. Derrick let off a quick burst that caught him in the neck and torso.

"Stay behind me!" Derrick said before quick-stepping down the ramp.

A soldier was at the bottom of an incline opposite Derrick and fired at his midriff before Derrick could see him.

"What the fuck!?" The man screamed before Alex's sidearm barked once.

"Which way?" Derrick asked as he checked them for spare ammunition.

"Right." She answered, catching a clip he tossed to her.

Derrick slapped a fresh magazine into his SMG and continued their advance down another corridor that curved to the left. A soldier, small at the far end of the corridor, was cautiously approaching. Derrick drew his sidearm and put several rounds into the man's throat and clavicle. The range was extreme, he wouldn't have thought it possible if not for Alex doing it so many times with ease, and he was a little surprised that it actually worked for him.

Derrick went up the stairs on the right and through a set of automated doors. The sight that greeted him made Derrick freeze in his tracks. It looked as though some explosive event had shattered a sterile enclosure in the center of the room. A massive… appendage, a fossil, rested against the floor with its upper end still in alloy restraints. The smallest digit was longer than Derrick was tall. A clipboard on the console to his left caught his eye.

**Research Report #17**

**This body part is most likely a part of the upper left arm belonging to an upright bipedal creature. Apart from its size it is similar to humanoids in nature. Its fingers and nails appear delicate enough to suggest that it is not a creature suited to hunting or combat.**

The rest of the document was a mixture of scientific babble and charred paper. Derrick passed the report to Alex, who read it far faster than he had, and stared at the arm in fascination.

"Interesting, but we've got to move." Alex said, putting down the clipboard.

They circled the enclosure and were brought to a stop by a keycard door.

"You have level two access?" Alex asked and Derrick could only shake his head.

"Looks like we go around then."

Alex went to the right, past the body of a scientist hanging over the ledge of the observation booth with half his brain oozing from his skull, without even glancing up.

_What a woman_, Derrick thought with a small shudder.

Alex led him through a storage closet packed tight with boxes and then into a loading area. The door on the opposite side had an old-fashioned handle. Derrick signed for Alex to give him cover and quickly entered the next room. This was a large warehouse with several forklifts, numerous cargo pallets, and two high storage shelves.

A grenade landed squarely at their feet.

"Frag!" Derrick shouted, diving forward with all his strength.

The ground fell beneath him and Derrick sailed five meters to roll over the top of the forklift. Crystalline pinging drowned out the sound of the grenade's detonation. Derrick looked up, drew his sidearm and put three rounds into the ambusher's left thigh. The man gave a loud grunt and slipped from his precarious perch on a storage shelf. The crunch was clearly audible as his helmet met the ground. Alex's cannon barked once and then there was silence. Derrick stood and Alex was suddenly there beside him.

"You okay?"

"You okay?"

They stared at each other for a moment. Derrick grinned and Alex looked away shyly. He noticed that his shield energy was low so he ate a ration bar. That did the trick and by the time they came to the next door his shield was fully charge. Derrick drew his sidearm and held his SMG before him. He nodded to Alex, she turned the latch, and he kicked the door in. There was a brief screech of metal and the door flew off its hinges. There was no time to be impressed because there was killing that needed doing.

A soldier at the far end of the cavernous storage room raised his hand before shouting a warning and Derrick fired three times with his sidearm. Bullets bounced from his left side and he turned his head to see a pair of soldiers on the level above him. Derrick raised his SMG and fired two, precise bursts that eliminated that problem without him even shuffling his feet.

Derrick reloaded his weapons as Alex raced up the stairs at the far end of the room. He followed her and caught a pair of magazines she tossed to him. The next set of doors was automatic and led into a long hall with a forklift sitting in it. Their exit was at the far end and led to an anteroom that led to a small hall. Derrick went to the left with Alex close behind.

The two operated as though they had been working together for years and, for Derrick at least, it felt that way. The next hall ended in stairs that led to a door. Derrick entered the observation booth for the colossal arm and his eyes immediately went to a gold keycard with a '2' on it. He was reaching for it when a familiar buzzing sound reached his ears. Derrick snatched the card and backed from the shattered window.

"I hate these fuckers!"

When the first T'lan Bug appeared, Derrick fired a quick burst. Then an entire swarm of the little fuckers appeared and the two of them delivered a bullet-filled Hell upon them. Once the last of the Bugs were detonated, Derrick picked up a clipboard on the console on his left near the shattered glass.

**POWER OUTAGE NOTICE**

**Distribution:**

**All Terminus 4 Staff**

**Controlled power outages will be in effect for the specified blocks below due to Nexus restart experiments.**

**Time: Tomorrow for approx. 15 secs at 0500hrs.**

**Affected Blocks: A,B, and E.**

**Nexus Restart Anomalies Status Report**

**Distribution:**

**N Project Staff**

**1. T'lan Warrior Reawakening**

**2. Silo Activities**

**3. Appearance of small, unidentified lifeforms.**

**We have casualties and the conditions here are extremely dangerous. We recommend the immediate shutdown of Nexus.**

**Terminator of Nexus Restart Experiment**

**Distribution:**

**Project Staff**

**Sender:**

**Glen Ogawa**

_So he is the boss._

**Attempt the following procedures:**

**1. Resend the shut down signal to Nexus.**

**2. Shut down #2 reactor core completely.**

**3. Shut down all relevant computer systems.**

"This couldn't have been sent more than a few days ago." Derrick handed the report to Alex.

"Yeah." She murmured, "They really fucked up. More than they know." Alex tossed the clipboard away angrily. "Let's move."

Alex moved through the broken window, avoiding the legs of the dead woman Derrick had noticed earlier, and jumped back into the lab. Derrick followed, his thoughts wary, and opened the door with the keycard. Alex wasn't telling him everything she knew, that was becoming painfully obvious, but he would not be led around like a pet.

Even if he wanted her more with each passing second.


	12. Security Measures

Opening the door proved to be a bit of an anticlimax. The doorway led to a wide corridor that curved to the left. At the end of the corridor was a pair of doors that were easily opened with the press of a button. After the frenetic firefight they had come through, Derrick and Alex approached each new doorway with ready anticipation. Together they turned right at the T-section and came to a fairly ominous door. To the right of the massive doorway was a warning sign that looked suspiciously life the one used for radioactivity. Before Derrick could say a word, Alex had hit the button. The door opened and Derrick let out a sigh of relief when it was just another creepy corridor. A little way down the way were even more signs on the path to their left. One sign that read "Warning: Laser Radiation" made Derrick's eyebrows raise but once again Alex was there. The woman moved with inhuman grace as she twisted the handle of the door and kicked it in. Derrick had no choice but to follow her into the room.

It was a very tall room, at least four stories, and utterly dominated by the massive barrier that reached from floor to ceiling. The base and walls of the barrier looked to be composed of the quartz-veined material the T'lan seemed to favor. Crackling, reddish-hued energy filled the interior spaces of the barrier.

"What the fuck is it?" Derrick whispered as they stopped a few meters from it.

Even at this distance Derrick could feel the force emanating from it.

"I don't know, there wasn't any wall like this here before. This must be from the ruins!"

"Ruins?"

"Where did you think all this stuff came from?"

"Uranus?"

Alex glared at Derrick, hard, before speaking again.

"Let's see if we can find a way through."

Derrick grinned as Alex made her way up the flight of stairs to the second level. She stopped at that level and followed the catwalk to a small pile of equipment.

"Bugs!" Alex exclaimed, backing away to give Derrick a clear line of fire.

Several short bursts later it was clear and Alex walked up to what Derrick's shooting had revealed. A huge battery, at least it looked like one, had been sitting in a container that Derrick's fire had clipped.

"This looks useful." Alex murmured as she clipped it to her belt.

They stopped at the top of the final flight, turned to their left, and a pair of T'lan Warriors came rushing towards them. Derrick cinched his SMG tight and went forward to meet them. Alex darted past him and spinning side-kicked the leader in the throat. There was no crystalline sound of shield shedding kinetic force, only the crunch of T'lan flesh, and then its dying moan. The remaining Warrior gathered itself for a jump kick but Derrick planted his shoulder in its gut and pushed it into the air. The Warrior barely sailed a meter but it did tumble to the ground on its back. Derrick leapt and came down with a knee to the hollow of the T'lan's throat and then a reverse knife-hand to its trachea. The Warrior convulsed and began to disintegrate as Derrick stood.

Alex was waiting for him in the direction the T'lan had come from. They nodded in unison and made their way around the periphery of the room. It bemused Derrick that at one point they were actually behind the barrier. But even with his new abilities he didn't want to try a four-story nosedive. At last they came to a pair of computer terminals flanking what Derrick suspected was a laser cannon.

Of course there was a conspicuously empty slot just the right size for the battery.

"Here goes nothing." Alex said, inserting the battery and pressing the activation button.

A heavy whine began as the pronged end of the barrel started to rotate. A thick beam of blue light burst from the pronged barrel and directly into the center of a spider-web shaped outline in a solid section at the top of the barrier. Reddish lines spread out from the contact point and the energy barrier began to slowly fade away.

"It's gone! Just like that!" Alex exclaimed and this time Derrick gave her the funny look. "Wow! Their research has sure come a long way."

"You done gawkin'?" Derrick asked snidely.

Alex turned and stuck her tongue out before breezing back the way they had come. Derrick followed after her with a small smile. They were a landing from the floor when the door was kicked open and several soldiers rushed into the room. Derrick pulled a grenade, freed the pin, and lobbed it over the railing.

"Let's move!" Derrick barked to be heard over the detonation of the grenade.

Derrick turned down the last flight of stairs and was almost as surprised at the sight of the soldier waiting for him as the soldier was at seeing Derrick. Alex's sidearm boomed, feeling like it had come within a hair of shattering his eardrum, and the guard flew backwards with limp finality. Bullets ricocheted off the grated stairs and both scrambled for the cover of the stacks of equipment on either side of the stairwell. Derrick risked a glimpse out and saw that there was only one left. Derrick leaned out and fired two quick bursts that made the trooper duck behind a meter-high crate. Unfortunately for him that meant he didn't see Alex sprint forward, hop nimbly atop the crate, and sight on his helmet. The soldier looked up and Alex's sidearm barked once.

"Time to go." Alex said, nodding at Derrick.

Together they walked beneath the massive artifact. To the right, behind the arch, was another door with a keycard terminal. That opened into a floor that had a moderate incline. The doors at the bottom were push button and they hurried down another corridor to the right. The next door led to a long, wide set of stairs that, of course, led downward. At the bottom of the stairs the door on their right was green-lit and opened automatically at their approach. At the far end of this corridor was a red-lit set of doors but Alex led the way down a set of stairs on their left. Alex opened the door at the opposite end of the next hall.

It was a tiny alcove with the body of a soldier stretched out only a meter from the opposite door. Derrick quickly began securing ammo and a of couple ration bars. He noted that the man's body was riddled with what looked like high-caliber rounds.

"Be careful." Alex warned, as he stood.

"Let's do it!"

Derrick entered first, weapon at high alert, and nearly stumbled over the body of a soldier. Maybe two fire-teams, including the poor bastard in the other room, lay in various states of death about the room.

The how became evident quickly.

A machinegun turret descended from the ceiling and began tracking Derrick. Derrick tossed his SMG back to Alex and held his arms before him.

"I'll distract it!" That was all he got out before the weapon began to fire.

His shield energy began to dip alarmingly before Alex got almost directly beneath the turret and let loose an entire clip into its belly. It made a sad, moaning noise that caused Alex to quickly skip backwards before the turret blew up.

"Security's pretty tight!" She said, tossing Derrick's SMG back and continuing as he reloaded. "Looks like they don't want us to go any further. What do you think?"

Derrick smirked," When's that ever stopped us?"

Alex smiled and they secured additional supplies from the bodies before exiting the room. Alex turned right in the next hallway and twenty meters in a massive bulkhead cut off the corridor.

"Security system activated." The computerized voice was back. "Unauthorized personnel are strictly prohibited from entering the research area."

"This way." Alex said and pushed a button beside the bulkhead to their right.

It opened to admit them to a wide, brightly lit corridor with tracks in all four corners. They were halfway down the corridor when a low-pitched buzz filled the air.

"Look out!" Alex shouted and Derrick's eyes widened as a laser-net appeared at the far end of the corridor. "Your shield won't stop it."

Thankfully only two lasers raced toward them, one horizontal while the other was vertical, and Derrick simply crouched low to the floor. Alex, ever more acrobatic, did a rolling leap over the horizontal beam. The next beam Derrick hopped over while Alex did a front-tuck. The next several were avoided in much the same way. Derrick kept his movements simple while Alex had a seemingly inexhaustible supply of acrobatic maneuvers. Once the beams stopped, and they were at the far end, Alex calmly retrieved a ration bar and began chewing.

"Why do you do that?" Derrick asked, perspiration cool on his forehead.

"Do what?" She asked between bites, all wide brown-eyed innocence.

"Bounch around like a gymnast?"

Alex shrugged, "Keeps me focused. Let's keep moving."

Alex went down the corridor and turned left. It seemed as though they were bypassing the bulkheads that closed off the main corridor. Before they made it past the first section of corridor, divided by slates of wall that protruded into the hallway, a turret extended from the ceiling. Derrick took cover behind the left slate and Alex took the right. He retrieved a grenade, pulled the pin, and rolled it almost directly beneath the turret. The explosion reverberated throughout the narrow confines of corridor. Derrick risked a glance, saw the pathetic remnants of the turret, and hastily pulled his head back as the turret at the far end of the corridor opened fire. Alex stepped into the open path and threw a grenade but the turret fired on it before it was within ten meters.

"Looks like we do it the hard way." Derrick said, grinning tightly at Alex.

Derrick turned into the corridor and ran full-sprint at the turret. High-caliber rounds glanced off the floor, walls, and his shield. At three meters Derrick dropped to the floor, his momentum causing him to slide, and fired his SMG on full auto. He quickly rolled away when the turret began its signature whine. Alex was there helping him up seconds after it detonated.

"Great job, Derrick."

"All in a day's work."

Alex led the way right and opened another push-button bulkhead on their right. It was another laser-net corridor.

_Piece of cake_, Derrick thought as he waited behind Alex.

The first pair of lasers presented no problem but the horizontal beam of the second set suddenly began moving. With a yelp Derrick changed his leap into a frantic roll that left the bottom of his left boot sizzling. The next several seconds were a frenetic series of last minute jumps, rolls, and dives that had Derrick sweating fiercely. Of course Alex treated it all with her usual casual athleticism.

"You okay?" Alex asked once they were in the clear.

"Yeah." Derrick managed once he stopped his hands from shaking. "Piece of cake!"

The two rested a moment before moving on. Two left turns later they stepped into a small room with a security terminal to their right directly in front of a set of impressive doors. It was a dual-key system and only one of the keys was present.

"Fuck!" Alex's outbursts were something Derrick was quickly growing accustomed to, if not downright fond of. "We need to find the other key."

"Well, no shit, Sherlock!"

Derrick grinned when Alex punched him in the shoulder. They went out the door opposite the one they had entered and into another dimly lit gray corridor. A few turns later they entered a small, bare room with a lone terminal in it. Alex went to it, tapped a few commands, and a shelf slid out of the wall. Sitting in one of two depressions was a key.

"Okay." Alex said as she snatched it up. "Let's try it."

The two hurried back to the security terminal and inserted the key.

"On my signal." Derrick manned the opposite key as Alex spoke. "Three… two… one… turn!"

Derrick turned his key on cue and a second later the readout turned green. The heavy security doors opened to reveal a long, descending ramp. The doors at the bottom opened to reveal a long corridor at the end of which waited two T'lan Warriors.

"You ready to put some work in?" Derrick asked, tightening his SMG strap.

Alex cracked her knuckles by squeezing her hands into fists.

"Oh yeah."


	13. Stefania Wojinski

Derrick windmilled his arms as the T'lan at his feet dispersed.

"Well, that'll wake you up."

Alex smiled as she stepped to his side. Derrick gripped his SMG and nodded for Alex to lead the way. She went through a set of automated doors on their left that led into a laboratory of some kind. A figure to the far right caught his attention.

"Assault T'lan!" Alex shouted, pushing Derrick away from her.

A scarlet beam sliced through the body armor beneath his armpit with ridiculous ease.

"Fuck!" He grunted through gritted teeth.

"Get him, Derrick! I'm zero'd!"

Derrick stood, ignoring the searing pain in his side and crab-walked his way around the machinery along the periphery of the room. Finally he was very close to the steps leading to the raised area the T'lan was on. Derrick charged, hissing as the huge blister on his ribcage burst to flood his flak vest with blood, and caught the T'lan in a full-body tackle.

The Assault T'lan was even more covered by the chitin material than a Warrior except that the color scheme was a greenish-white hue. It didn't even have a mouth, just a delta-shaped hollow beneath where its nose should have been. One arm had been replaced with a long-barreled weapon that Derrick assumed was responsible for his injured side.

The clinical observation filtered through Derrick's mind while his fist repeatedly drove itself into the T'lan's throat. When it finally let out its death moan, Derrick stood with a pained sigh.

"Are you alright?" Alex asked, rushing to him with concern all over her face.

Derrick held his hand out to the pulsating sphere of energy and groaned rapturously as strength coursed through him. Once the pain in his side faded Derrick turned to Alex.

"Better now. Stand guard for a second, okay?"

Alex nodded and Derrick searched the lab for something to dry the inside of his vest.

"There must be others, so stay alert."

Alex conducted an examination of the lab while Derrick located a stack of printer paper.

"What is this place?" he asked, as he removed his vest.

"A T'lan Research Lab."

"Oh, I guess that explains the holding tanks." He nodded towards the three tubes in the center of the room.

"Yeah, it would." Alex answered in an extremely dry tone.

Once Derrick had his flak vest back on Alex came over holding a yellow crank.

"We'll need it to access the next area."

"Okay."

Alex went through the doors on the raised area and turned left at the bottom of a small ramp. She inserted the crank into a hole to the left of the shutter blocking the corridor off. She turned the crank with casual strength while Derrick knelt and trained his SMG on the rising shutter.

"Looks clear." Derrick rose and went through before it was fully raised.

At the end of the hall on the left were a set of ominous looking doors. A sign to the left of them had the weird radiation symbol on it and underneath it said-

"The Alpha Project." Alex whispered, as though she had read Derrick's mind.

The odd thing was that the word alpha had been replaced by a symbol that looked vaguely like a fish to Derrick. Alex and Derrick passed through a large airlock-type chamber before opening a set of push-button doors and stepping into a small room with ten cots.

"These beds haven't been used in awhile." Alex mused.

"Shh! Listen!" Derrick held up a hand and motioned towards the green-lit doors at the opposite end of the room.

The chattering sound of T'lan Bugs echoed through the shattered observation glass directly across from them. They passed through the automated doors together and, on the other side of the observation glass, a small group of Bugs were crawling all over a cot. A short burst took care of them.

"On your right!" Alex barked, swiveling as one with Derrick.

Two short bursts and all was quiet.

"I'm going to search that room." Derrick said and went to do just that.

Alex silently shadowed her comrade as his search yielded a clipboard on the counter that was surrounded, and probably filled, with the tools of a doctor's profession.

**To: Dr. Glen Ogawa, Director Carter Science Center**

**Subject: Alpha Project Cancelled**

**Findings: Mortality fate among test subjects too high. No evidence of improvement in physical capabilities.**

**Conclusion: This project does not satisfy military standards. Further instructions for dealing with Test Subject #7 to follow.**

_That's me_, Derrick thought, his anger rising.

The urge to hurl the clipboard across the room was almost overwhelming. Somehow he managed to calmly hand it to Alex, who promptly flicked it into the wall with an angry scowl.

"Maybe we shouldn't read anymore." She said, her voice soft.

"No, I'm okay. Let's see what else we can find."

Next to the bed the T'lan Bugs had been crawling over, they found an observation chart.

**Name: Test Subject 7**

**Test specification: T'langen treatment experiment**

**8/9- 35ml T'langen (administered 8 times)**

**8/12- Subject unconscious**

**8/15- Respiration difficulties; coma**

**8/16- Light-emitting reactions on top of right hand**

**8/18- Recovered consciousness; memory impaired**

**8/19- Re-entered coma state**

**8/25- Still unconscious; condition stabilized**

**8/30- Moved to Main Research Center**

While Alex read the report Derrick walked into the small room on their right. An operating table, with manacle restraints for the hands and feet, sat cold and malevolent in its center. Derrick ran a hand over the chilled metal surface and shuddered quietly.

"I think there're more at that table." Alex said, gesturing toward a conference table in the main area.

The first clipboard read:

**Counselor's Test Subject Interview**

**Report Author: ****b**** Project Team**

**What's your name?**

**-Ernest**

**What do you like?**

**-Alex**

**What don't you like?**

**-Medicine**

**What do you want to do?**

**-Go home**

**Comments: Although the interview was conducted the day after the fourth administration of T'langen, Test Subject 12 also appeared to be psychologically stable. The fifth dosage is planned in a week. Concentration of the dose will only be 50.**

Derrick handed the clipboard to Alex and picked up the other one.

**Name: Test Subject 1**

**7/14 02:13- Sudden heart stoppage; death**

For just a moment a man, his face broad and honest, appeared in Derrick's mind.

**Name: Test Subject 2**

**7/4 19:30- Convulsive seizure**

**19:35- Pulse rate drop**

**20:01- Death**

**Name: Test Subject 3**

**7/3- Pulse rate drop; death**

**Name: Test Subject 4**

**7/20- Convulsive seizure**

**7/21- Death**

**Name: Test Subject 5**

**8/1- Complained of intense pain in right humerus**

**02:41- Blood pressure drop**

**02:43- Pulse rate drop**

**02:53- Death**

**Name: Test Subject 6**

**7/3- Acute respiration difficulties; death**

**Name: Test Subject 8**

**7/9- Blood pressure lower; death**

**Name: Test Subject 9**

**7/6 08:10- Rapid decline in blood pressure**

**08:16- Administered epinephrine**

**08:26- Administered epinephrine**

**09:56- Death**

**Name: Test Subject 10**

**7/3 Acute respiration trauma; death**

Derrick dropped the clipboard and staggered backwards as voices and images filled his head. He began to recite the names of his dead squadmates. His dead friends.

"Ryan Daniels, Todd Bridgeham, Danielle Armstrong, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Jacob O'Ryan," Derrick slid down a wall and began rocking slowly against it. "Tiffany Weinstein, Ralph Parker, Ahmed Johnson, Dwayne Stellan."

Derrick had started to repeat the names when Alex's hands settled on his shoulders. He looked up, his vision cloudy with tears, and let out a soft, plaintive moaning sound.

"They're all dead and I can't even remember more than their _names_. Barely their names."

Alex awkwardly reached down and embraced Derrick. Derrick quietly sobbed into her shoulder; he didn't care if it felt like Alex had little experience comforting people, for several precious seconds before pulling away.

"Okay." He said, blowing explosively before wiping his eyes. "Okay."

Derrick looked up at Alex before standing and was surprised to see that her eyes were watery.

_And here I was beginning to think she was a robot._

"Let's get the fuck outta here!" Derrick exclaimed, clutching his SMG and heading for the doors.

Alex pushed the button and led the way to another set of doors that had a read: b Project. Derrick entered a large room with a glass wall on their left. It looked like a playroom filled with half a dozen children. What really interested him was the ceiling.

_I know I've seen those toys before._

"Those kids." Alex's voice was barely a whisper. "They're the Beta Project Test Subjects."

"You've gotta be fucking kidding me! They're giving that shit to kids!"

"Calm down, Derrick!" Though Alex's eyes were filled with tears. "It's a much lower concentration than what you got. They'll live. Trust me."

"Okay, okay." Derrick said, his breathing heavy.

A blonde lad with a low-cut Mohawk backed away nervously from the glass wall while a dark-haired girl, with a disturbing resemblance to Alex walked cautiously forward in a protective manner.

"Hey, that boy… It's Ernest! " Alex' voice was suddenly full of inexplicable joy. An emergency shutter began to slide up as Alex placed her hands on the glass. "Help's on its way!" Alex shouted. "Just stay put for now. It's okay… some of them will survive."

"I thought you said they all would." Derrick said, through gritted teeth.

"The T'langen, not the T'lan." Alex said, her eyes and voice dripping with sadness. "Let's get out of here."

The exit led to a pair of airlocks and into a hallway. Alex went left and then right up a ramp.

_This place fucking loves ramps._

Alex took the doors on the right, up another ramp, through push button doors, and down a hall to their right. They went through the doors on the immediate left and stopped into a cluttered office. They turned a corner and a tall, strikingly beautiful blonde woman swivelled her chair to face them.

"Ah, so you woke up, I see." She said, her accent definitely Eastern European, with her blue eyes fixed squarely on Derrick.

"You know him?" Alex asked before Derrick could say a word.

The woman turned to Alex with a slightly disapproving air.

"Yes, little missy, I know him very well." She pointed at Derrick with long fingernails. "You mister, you are pretty famous among the scientists here. But it is a pity I must be leaving before long. Please, do not disturb."

The woman pushed her glasses higher and turned back to her computer terminal. Derrick, his emotions on a short leash, drew his sidearm and looked at Alex.

"Wait." She mouthed and Derrick reluctantly slid his gun back into its holster.

Seconds later the woman turned back around, stood, and walked down a flight of stairs on their right. The two followed quietly behind her. She entered a door to the far left of the stairs. Inside was a small office whose space was mostly taken up by a tarp. Derrick walked around it and saw that it was a recliner encased in a spherical module with a transparent canopy.

"What is this?" Alex asked, stepping closer.

"The results of my ten years of research, dear." The woman walked around Derrick with a snort. "That is to say, it is garbage."

"Garbage?" Alex asked, her brow wrinkled.

"Yes, they say, you know. They say, no money to pay for the garbage! So they cut from the budget, my research. So this, this all is garbage. Proof completed."

"That's bullshit!" Alex spat, to which the woman laughed haughtily.

"Is okay. I have a lead for my next benefactor." The woman turned and sat at the corner desk. "And that just leaves one thing."

The mysterious stranger turned to the computer, tapped a few commands, and waved to the screen.

"I must pay respects to my previous employer, no? They will regret my decision, I think. Hey, Derrick." She turned to face him. "How much do you remember? What is your oldest memory?"

"I remember an angel on the ceiling."

"Angel? You are sure? But that room was… Well, you know, best you do not rely too much on memory, mister. Memories, they are not always from real events. Especially for someone like you who has suffered amnesia. You understand what I say?"

"Fuck no."

The blonde turned back and extracted a CD from the hard drive.

"I am Stefania Wojinski." She said, standing close to Derrick. "I wish I had met you earlier." She stepped closer and sexual tension flared from her hotly while Derrick looked at her with a thousand-yard stare. "Think of the funding I would have if I managed to cure you, yes? But I won't stop my research. No matter what I must do. Time to go, Casval. "

Stefania picked up the cat carrier that Derrick hadn't even noticed sitting on her desk. She walked to the opposite side of the room and Derrick noticed that on the canopy was a drawn picture of a cat underneath the words, 'Hope is a waking dream.' Stefania stopped at the door on the opposite side of the room, typed in a password, and stood in the open doorway. Only the fact that she apparently had nothing to do with the Alpha Project kept Derrick from holding a gun to her head and forcefully retrieving some intel.

"Derrick… you find a good doctor, okay. Goodbye." With that, she was gone and the door locked itself behind her.

"I wonder what she's planning on doing… Agh!" Alex threw her hands in the air and then placed them on her hips. "We have enough problems of our own to worry about! Let's go find Glen. He can't be far."

"Yeah, she was too tall anyway." Derrick said, his gaze on the drawing. "And a total fucking nut."

Alex grinned at him as they left through the door opposite that which the enigmatic Stefania Wojinski had departed by.


	14. Stealth T'lan

Alex led the way left out of Stefania's office door. It was a wide hallway that ended in a pair of automated double doors that slid open upon their approach. Derrick went through first, his weapon held in an subconscious grip, his mind going around in circles after hearing the Wojinski woman's bullshit.

_Totally fucking useless_, Derrick thought, as they entered a steel-gray hall that looked as though it belonged in a military bunker.

The space opened up after a short distance into a wider, perpendicular area. At one end there was an ordered collection of what look like bus tables and food trays; while the other end was a jumble of laundry bins filled with soiled linens judging from the faint aroma. Alex jumped up several high-steps leading to the next area and then turned left. They took the first door on the right, went through two sets of automated doors, and entered another steel-gray hallway. The two went right, following the hall around a room on their left that was visible through large observation windows along both halls. Just before they reached the next set of push-button doors they heard a voice.

"Goddamnit show yourself!" A man's voice, shrill with panic, screamed. "Where are you!? I'll kill all you bastards!"

Derrick motioned for Alex to take position on the other side of the door and, once she was in position, he palmed the button. Alex whipped into the doorway, sidearm at the read, and relaxed slightly at the empty corridor. Another set of push-button's led them into a hallway that went left down a series of long steps. Before they reached the bottom there was a harsh cry of agony that was abruptly cut off by the sound of rending flesh.

"Careful, Derrick. Definitely T'lan." Alex whispered as they cautiously neared the bottom.

"No weapons fire?" He whispered in reply, as his back hugged the wall.

Alex shrugged, "There are more than two types of T'lan, Derrick."

_Aw, that's fucking great._

The bottom of the stairwell ended with a blank wall to their right and a small flight of stairs to their left. At the top was a set of automated doors that opened before they reached the top. Derrick dove forward, SMG ready to rock, while Alex twisted to the left of the door frame. After several tense seconds Derrick stood and they entered a high-ceilinged room together. The floor was white, with hexagonal tiles, so the massive pool of blood in its center was hard to miss. Alex knelt in front of it while Derrick kept watch.

"Wow… no one could lose that much blood and survive. Definitely T'lan, Derrick, but this guy didn't fire a single shot. We might be dealing with Stealth T'lan."

"Stealth T'lan? What the fuck are they?"

"Infiltrators, scouts, and assassins. They have a special shield that makes them invisible to the naked eye."

"How do we fight them?"

"For normal soldiers, spray the area you think they're in and pray. Regular firearms might not penetrate but they'll disable their invisibility shield. There's a trick I might be able to teach you but we'd need a few minutes of quiet observation which we might not get anytime soon."

"Alright." Derrick flicked his SMG's fire selector to full auto. "Let's do it."

Oddly enough, blood splatter began several meters away from the large pool. Of course it had to lead out the door Alex indicated they needed to go. They advanced with care through two sets of push-buttons before coming to a small flight of stairs that led downward. They reached the bottom and a small waste bin fell over to draw their attention to the left.

Just in time to see someone in a lab coat disappear around the corner.

"He-!" Derrick's shout was interrupted by Alex's hand over his mouth.

"Shh! Look-" Alex's finger quivered with tension as she pointed at a blood smear along the left wall.

Derrick nodded and she removed her hand.

"No noise. It attracts them."

Not for the first time Derrick wondered how she knew so much about T'lan. A faint metallic tapping echoed through the high-ceiling service corridor they followed the blood smears down. Derrick broke out in a cold sweat when an eerie wail overlapped the tapping. The door on the right, only ten meters away, closed the sound off. Alex nodded at Derrick, her expression grim yet confident, and they went to the doors.

They entered a large storage area with cargo containers stacked against one wall and the center of the room. Blood splatter led towards a forklift. Then Alex pointed to the far right wall and the blood smear on it. The two warriors advanced quickly and circled around the cargo containers. The containers were not flush against the wall as Derrick had originally thought. There was a narrow walkway that led to an open door on the right. Derrick peered into the next room and his eyes widened at a horrible sight.

A figure in a lab coat dangled lifelessly in the air as something unseen carried it across the room.

Derrick stepped through the doorway just as the body disappeared around a corner. Again it was a simple matter of following the blood splatter. The trail led between very high stacks of containers and it made Derrick nervous. Suddenly the containers a few meters in front of them began to fall. Derrick took a step back and held his forearm to Alex's waist to push her back as well. Before the first container had fully settled they were making their way around the newly created obstacle. They entered the next room and followed the trail around a stack of containers. At the foot of metal stairs at the far end was another puddle of blood. Derrick went up the stairs first and Alex was a few meters behind him. That horrible wail filled the air again as Derrick began climbing the second flight. Once they reached the top Derrick was sickened by what he saw lying in a pool of blood.

"That's an arm."

"Fuck."

Through the automated doors they advanced down several long halls, following intermittent splatter, until they found themselves at an automated door. This time they entered shoulder-to-shoulder.

The armless body of the scientist lay on the floor a few meters in.

A chair came sliding across the floor toward them by itself.

Then all hell broke loose.

Something gripped Derrick's hip and wrist with crushing force. In the blink of an eye he was airborne and crashing into the left wall behind a meeting table. Alex's cannon barked twice and then the table shook.

"Shit!" Alex shouted, "She's on the table, Derrick!"

Derrick immediately let loose on full auto through the underside of the table. The crystalline chime of T'lan shielding brought a wicked grin to his face, which promptly disappeared when a shadow descended upon him. Derrick instinctively held up his SMG like a shield and the weapon split down the middle as the T'lan stabled downward with her… hand.

_Fuck me_.

The Stealth T'lan was about Alex's height and covered head-to-toe in a black, red-streaked chitin that was probably responsible for the invisibility shit. She raised her other hand, with big ass dagger-like fingers, because her other hand was stuck in Derrick's flak vest's armor plate. Alex came up behind the T'lan, her knife shining larger-than-life, and grabbed the T'lan's wrist. Alex's stroke across the T'lan's throat was beautiful in its grace. Unlike with a human, there was no spurt from the carotid, only a small bubbling rush of whitish fluid, and Alex pulled the gently convulsing body off of him.

Derrick stood as the body faded, retrieved the magazine, and cast aside his SMG with a shake of his head.

"I hate those bitches." Alex said, wiping her knife on the only piece of blood-free clothing of the scientist.

"I'm right there with ya, Alex."

"What the hell was she doing here?" Alex wondered as she wandered to the observational glass at the end of the room.

Alex hit a button and Derrick saw that they were looking into the room with the huge pool of blood in it. The security door opposite the glass, something like you might see in a bank, cycled open. Almost immediately a pair of uncloaked Stealth T'lan raced into the room, paused for a moment, and headed for the storeroom. Two more pairs followed them.

"They're headed for the storeroom. Looks like we'll have to fight our way through."

"How are we gonna see them?" Derrick asked, gesturing towards the broken SMG.

"I can do it. Just stay behind me. If we get lucky I might be able to show you that trick."

Derrick nodded and they hurried out of the room. The way back to the first storeroom was tense. Alex was moving with a strange gait and had a frightening level of intensity in her gaze as they cautiously stepped onto the platform. Alex stopped, crouched, and held up her hand. Derrick followed her lead as she dropped to her belly and inched her way to the edge. Derrick looked down and saw not a thing until Alex forcibly turned his head in a certain direction.

"Now." She whispered into his ear, causing a reaction entirely inappropriate for the situation. "Focus. Want it more than anything."

Derrick did focus, and focused for several minutes, until a faint corona of sparks filled the shape of a woman. With it came a peculiar sensation. It was as if he was hearing the T'lan's heartbeat, but not exactly with his ears. It was then that he became aware of another "beat" that was right below them.

Derrick nodded and Alex exploded into motion.

The silent warrior vaulted over the guardrail, drawing her sidearm and blade on the way up, and fell through the air with the grace of a gymnast. Derrick watched in aw as she fired just before landing and hit the T'lan waiting behind the cover of a cargo stack. There was a brief scuffle and then the warbling cry of a T'lan's death. The remaining Stealth T'lan raced toward Alex, one hand held close to the ground; while the other was raised for a rending blow. Alex was a blur as she darted within the T'lan's strike range and jabbed with her blade. The T'lan did a curious sort of jig as the knife scored home several times before Alex delivered a standing front-kick that propelled the T'lan back several meters. By this time Derrick had made it to the storeroom floor via the stairs.

"Goddamn." He whispered as the bodies faded. "How come you didn't just take out those first T'lan we saw?"

Alex shrugged, "You would have tried to help and probably died. Let's keep moving."

Derrick nodded and they cautiously entered the second storeroom. Alex went left around the blocked pathway. Only three meters along it he heard a beat directly above them. Derrick looked up, twisted so he was facing away from the container at his back, hopped up and kicked off of it. His thrust-kick caught the falling T'lan square in the face. The force of the strike flung the T'lan's limp body into the opposite wall hard enough to make her bounce back towards him. Derrick landed light as a cat, nearly as smug, and let out a befitting yowl as a body slammed into the container wall beside him. Alex turned towards him with a smirk, gory knife in one hand, and Derrick promptly flipped her off. Alex chuckled and they continued on their way.

Alex was the first through the doorway and then was gone. Derrick sprinted forward and slid on his back through the door. Motion, two distinct beats, and Derrick was on his feet. He turned to his right, the strongest beat, and jabbed the corona somewhere near its throat. The T'lan staggered back, now completely visible, but managed to slash Derrick across the shoulder.

"Fucker!" Derrick spat through gritted teeth.

Derrick buried his left fist, causing an electric-blue burst of light that surprised him, but not enough to stop him from lifting the T'lan over his head with effortless strength. He drove her to the ground headfirst, heard the skull crack, and cast the body from him as Alex's voice cried out.

"Little help!"

Alex was on her back, five meters on Derrick's right, with a Stealth T'lan bearing down on her with both dagger-tipped hands aimed at her face. Derrick made two jackrabbit leaps that carried him right up to the T'lan's back. He caught her head in a chokehold and began to maneuver to snap her neck. It was like twisting steel cord but Derrick kept at it. His right hand suddenly flared, first yellow, then crimson light and the T'lan's neck broke as easily as a dry twig. The predator tenseness drained from the Stealth T'lan in an instant. Alex kicked the body away with a sneer.

"I really hate those bitches," Alex said as she took Derrick's offered hand.

"I see why," Derrick smiled as he pulled her to her feet.


	15. Glen Ogawa

The way back to the white room was clear of Stealth T'lan. Derrick and Alex, their wounds no longer bleeding, entered in the focused state that allowed them to sense Stealth T'lan in close proximity. Derrick was once again filled with a sense of rightness in regards to their synchronicity. They went through the vault door that the T'lan had come through and Derrick noticed a security camera in the corner.

_I've probably passed a thousand and not even known it._

The corridor turned right and ended at a set of push-buttons with the curious radiation warning sign next to them. This room was very small and ended less than five meters to their left. Derrick noticed another blocky security camera facing the doors on their left. Alex slapped the button and Derrick slid into the room quiet as a snake. It was the research room they had seen through the long corridor window. Unfortunately there was one big difference between then and now.

There were at least three Stealth T'lan in the room.

One began to turn towards the open door, her aura blurring in Derrick's vision, and he leapt off the top of the three steps down to the floor. The sound of his combat boot meeting T'lan skull was never pleasant and neither was the accompanying wail as his enemy cart-wheeled away. Derrick landed and Alex fired twice. He turned toward a 'Beat, it having grown loud and fierce, and caught the T'lan with a vicious hook to the jaw.

_My hand should be broken with all these hooks I've been throwing_, Derrick thought as he followed it with an upper knuckle to the throat.

Derrick finished the T'lan with a full body palm-uppercut that snapped the T'lan's neck back fatally. The force of the blow sent her spinning through the air like a piece of fluff. Derrick turned to see Alex wrenching her combat knife out of a T'lan's throat. The Stealth T'lan crumpled backwards and writhed for a few moments before expiring.

"I'm gonna search the lab." Derrick said, and Alex nodded as she took up a guard position.

Derrick's search turned up nothing but Alex had a surprise for him. He took the SMG and quickly began making sure it was in working order. She even had a couple magazines for it.

"Where'd you find it?" He asked, strapping it on.

"Near that body." Alex pointed to a spot near the exit. "I think they shot him and then the T'lan got them."

Derrick nodded, "Let's go."

The two entered a small airlock that led to a long hall that went to their left. A level below them was a set of automated doors but they had to go down the ledge, almost to the gate that cut the hall off, to get to a set of stairs. Thankfully there were no Stealth T'lan laying in wait. Derrick and Alex descended a ramp and came to a quaint sitting area with potted plants in alcoves to their left. There was an observation window opposite the bottom of the ramp. Derrick went to it and saw a man standing before a podium in... what look like some kind of cemetery.

"That's Glen!" Alex exclaimed excitedly. "Come on!"

Alex trotted to the end of the sitting area, down two long ramps, and back around to the atrium's entrance. They ascended two small flights of stairs too quickly to notice the figures hiding in the shadowed alcoves flanking the path. Derrick did notice those that suddenly sprang up from behind the grave markers before them. Alex's sidearm was immediately aimed at the nearest one's head. Derrick spun and lifted his SMG in the same motion but the three dark-clothed figures had him dead to rights.

"Identify yourselves!" One barked, his voice muffled by the mask that covered everything except his eyes.

"Stow that shit, Sloane." A low-pitched voice said as someone approached from Derrick's back. "That's Derrick Cole. We've been expecting him."

The soldiers weapons, sleek American assault rifles whose name would not readily come to him, were off Derrick and Alex as though by magic.

"I am the one." Derrick turned at the vaguely familiar voice of the man before the podium. "I am the one that killed you all. The sacrificial lambs of the Alpha Project."

"Come with me." The voice belonged to a tall, black man that looked to be in his early forties. "Maybe you'll snap him out of his mood, Cole."

"You know me?" Derrick asked, hope almost painful in his gut as they made their way up a ramp along the left wall.

"Only by reputation." The man's face was uncovered and his dark brown eyes hardened at whatever thoughts were in his mind. "Here and out in the world. Names Jameson, Walter T. We'll talk later."

They came up behind Ogawa, who acted as though he didn't know they were there.

"The Alpha Project?" Alex asked, as though the man was a turtle to be prodded out of his shell.

Ogawa was silent for a second before half-turning to Alex.

"You saw the T'lan Warriors, right?" Ogawa looked at least half-Japanese, was slightly taller than Derrick, and had a barely contained genius in his brown eyes.

"Yeah…" Alex answered. "I've seen enough of them to last a lifetime."

The urge to blow this man's brains out was almost overwhelming. He as much as admitted to killing the only family Derrick could remember. He deserved to die, would probably burn in hell, but the set of his shoulders and the tone he used was of someone nearly broken by grief and regret. That alone stayed Derrick's hand.

"I was researching the T'lan under the supervision of the military."

"U.S. or Japan?" Derrick asked, his question coming out harsher than intended.

"Joint." Ogawa avoided Derrick's gaze by looking towards the ceiling. "Those monsters are the creations of beings other than humans."

"There's a shocker," Derrick muttered.

"Tens of thousands of them sleep underground, here. In other words the one that could control this army and use it at will… would be a major force to be reckoned with."

The horror of it made some of Derrick's restraint snap.

"Major force!" He shouted, moving forward only to be stopped by Alex's forearm across his chest. "You could take over the world with an army of those fuckers!"

"I bet the military, any military-" Alex turned to glare at Derrick, "-would jump at that chance."

"Still, even after ten years of research, I have only been able to solve a tiny fraction of the mysteries here." Now Ogawa was pounding his fists together in agitation. "Those hot-headed military types decided to take these paltry results and apply them to the creation of enhanced soldiers. _That _was the Alpha Project." Ogawa suddenly slumped forward with his shoulders hunched. "All of the test subjects died, except one. The subject was in a coma for quite a while… and that lone survivor is here with us now."

Ogawa looked at Derrick with tears in his eyes and got a cold stare in return.

"I'm talking about you, Derrick."

"No shit."

"Derrick, be polite." Alex elbowed him in the side. "This is Glen."

"I heard that you were awake. I can't believe you made it this far."

"Well, it wasn't a walk in the park, and I had help." Derrick nodded towards Alex.

"I imagine it wasn't."

"Glen." Alex seemed very familiar with the scientist. "Derrick has been showing signs of Acceleration."

"Accele-what?' Derrick asked, glaring at Alex for withholding.

"Acceleration, you say?" Now Ogawa looked like someone had offered him a free happy ending.

"He can get through the T'lan Warriors shields!"

"So… The Alpha Project managed to produce one success after all. Derrick, you may be able to get near Nexus."

"Nexus?" Derrick asked, his frustration mounting with each word that Ogawa spoke.

"Excuse me, sir, but we should get back. This area is not secure."

"Right, Walter, you're right."

Jameson held a hand to his ear, "Fall in. We're heading back."

The six-man squad hustled up the ramps and fell into guard position around Derrick and the others. Jameson took the lead, only a few meters behind the two point-men, and Ogawa followed. They descended a ramp behind the podium to a set of automated doors. A pair of dark-clothed guards flanked Alex and Derrick all the way down. They went through the door behind Derrick and Alex. This next hall was high, arched and relatively empty. Jameson headed towards a doorway in a deep alcove to the right. He typed in a code on the keypad by the handle and pushed it open when the lock clicked.

The group entered a very dark room that was intermittently illuminated by strobe-like flashes of light. The corridor went to their left and Derrick saw that the right wall had partially collapsed to block half of the corridor. Thankfully the moving walkway, like those in major airports, was clear of rubble.

"It's this way! Follow me!" A voice echoed down the corridor just as they boarded the walkway.

Ogawa began speaking again as though no time had passed.

"Nexus is something like a control tower for the T'lan Warriors."

At the end of the corridor, where it met a perpendicular one, a pair of men in lab coats raced past accompanied by a pair of guards wielding assault rifles.

"This is why our first priority is to stop Nexus."

The small group paused at an unseen door on the left before it opened and they hurried through it.

"The project team is working on a plan, but…"

Jameson led them down a short ramp to the right. This corridor was intact and again Derrick found himself on a moving walkway. A door opened opposite the walkway and a man rushed through it. He was tall, had brown hair, and wore a long-sleeved uniform jacket instead of a lab coat.

"Doctor Ogawa! The soldiers have ordered us to hand over the data. If we don't, they'll take control of the research center by force." The man spoke with a faint Eastern European accent.

"So give it to them." Ogawa replied nonchalantly. "Copying the data shouldn't take long."

"But Doctor Ogawa…" The man began sweating lightly despite the chill in the air, "The data… it's gone."

"What?" Ogawa's face twisted with emotion.

"Somebody copied and deleted it!"

"Are you sure of this?" Ogawa took a deep breath. "All right. I will inform the military. You and the rest of the team must concentrate on Nexus."

"Yes, Doctor." The scientist turned and raced back to the door he had come in by.

Derrick and Alex shared a look.

_So that's what that crazy bitch meant_, Derrick thought and shook his head slightly when Alex opened her mouth to say something.

The group exited the walkway and Jameson led the way through a door to the right.

Static blurred Derrick's vision and left a surreal world of ghostly blues and whites in its wake. He turned around and sighed as the automated doors would not budge.

_Forward it is. Fuck._

The cat appeared before him, meowed, ran at the automated doors at the other end, and dispersed before hitting them. Derrick went through the doors, turned a corner, walked towards a mirror at the end of the hall, and was about to go up a flight of stairs on the left when he caught a glimpse of his reflection. What he saw was a brown-skinned man of average height with a moustache and he was wearing what seemed to be the uniform for Ogawa's research team.

_This shit just keeps getting better_, Derrick thought as he touched his face in awe.

He was so entranced that the sound of footsteps took precious seconds to register.

"Hey!" Derrick yelled as he raced up the stairs.

Only meters from the end of the hallway at the top of the stairs he heard Ogawa's voice.

"The project team is working on a plan… but…"

Derrick went through the door and into the path beside the walkway. He looked to his left and uttered an expletive he had found suitable use for all day.

"Fuck."

Standing on the walkway, coming directly toward Derrick, was Jameson's squad, Ogawa, Alex… and himself. He watched in shocked fascination as the group went by. The researcher burst from the door behind him and went into his spiel. Derrick followed the group and fully expected the hallucination to be over. Instead he found himself in the same predicament as before.

"_You time-slipped…"_ The voice was everywhere and sounded like Ogawa.

_Time-slipped? There's always some-fucking-thing._

Derrick stepped into the corridor with the mirror and heard a faint voice.

"It's this way! Follow me!" Then the sound of running footsteps.

"Hey!" Derrick shouted, running hard for the exit.

He arrived at the walkway just as the two figures darted through a doorway.

"Fuck!" Derrick growled.

Derrick tried following the researcher back through his doorway but it was like an invisible steel wall barred his way.

_I'll catch them this time_. He thought as he felt the insidious creep of panic up the base of his spine.

"_You will most assuredly return to the past." _Derrick ignored Ogawa's ghost voice and sprinted through the halls.

This time he came into the walkway path as the lone researcher and his guards waited outside the door.

_I must be the second researcher._

Derrick raced for the door and slid through just behind the last guard. The group turned left and at the turn of the hall the black researcher turned and began clapping at Derrick. The guards politely took up defensive positions. At the end of the hall, to his right, was a group of four researchers clapping. As he approached they started away.

"It's all up to you, Derrick." The man on the right said just before dispersing in a spray of light.

"Thank you." The woman in front of the door said solemnly before she too dispersed.

As Derrick reached for the handle static washed over him. Everything looked normal in the next corridor and he headed toward the automated doors on the left. Hopefully Ogawa and Alex were somewhere up ahead. Derrick passed through the doors and two assault rifles snapped up only five meters in front of him. They immediately came down.

"They're waiting for you, sir." The gray-eyed woman on the left said, gesturing down the corridor on Derrick's right.

Derrick proceeded with a gracious nod. He went through the automated doors on his left and stepped into what looked like a control room. There was a work area with four computer terminals, two stations apiece, directly across from him. Eight of what he assumed were Jameson's men stood in guard positions around the room. Jameson himself stood with Ogawa and Alex in front of a wall-sized monitor. Ogawa began speaking as Derrick walked between control terminals to join them.

"Show me the current geotomography." He said to a technician at the terminal to his left.

"Here it is." The man replied and the upper right-hand corner of the monitor changed. "Take a good look. This is Site Zero."

Derrick looked and could only make out green blobs.

"Nexus is located at its center. We've studied it for ten long years, but it is still full of mysteries. We do not know who created it. But we do know what they created it for. It is definitely a weapon. The technology-" For a moment Ogawa's voice was filled with longing, "-is astounding. Our understanding has not even scratched the surface… No, to tell the truth, we have not even found a surface to scratch."

"But isn't it dangerous? A Pandora's Box?" Alex asked, her eyes narrow.

"Extracting hope, and hope alone, from Pandora's Box… _that _is science."

"But you failed." Alex said, her voice sad.

Ogawa's shoulders slumped, "I can't argue with your assessment. But as in the legend, hope remains at the bottom of our box as well."

Ogawa turned to Derrick, his eyes glistening with emotion, and stepped forward.

"You _are_ that hope, Derrick. You must stop Nexus! If you do not the planet will be faced with a horrific crisis."

"Crisis?!" Alex shouted. "Isn't apocalypse the word you're looking for!"

"Please, Derrick, you have to help us."

"Help you?" Derrick said his voice flat and his emotions cold. "Help the people that murdered my squad, took my memory, pumped me full of some shit that came outta fuckin' aliens, and then left me to the wolves."

As Derrick spoke, his voice never rose in pitch, but his right fist began to glow.

"I only came here because Alex seemed to think you could me and you can't even help yourselves."

Jameson stepped protectively in front of Ogawa and put a hand on his sidearm.

"I want to kill you, Ogawa. For everything you've done or might do."

Arcs of light began dancing across Derrick's arm and fist.

"Fire on my command." Jameson said, his sidearm aimed at Derrick's forehead.

All the faces of his dead comrades began to flash before his eyes until, to Derrick's amazement; Alex's visage filled his mind. Then she was there, blocking both Jameson's shot and Derrick's advance, her brow furrowed in worry.

"No, Derrick, stop!" She yelled, her voice raw with unaccustomed emotion, "We need him. He's right about Nexus. Only we can stop it. Do you still trust me, Derrick?"

Derrick looked into her wide eyes for long moments and suddenly all the energy rushed out of him. He fell forward into Alex's open arms, she caught him instinctively, and tears began to silently slide down his face.

"We need rest, food, and a shower. Then we'll answer." He heard Alex say.

"Of course." Ogawa answered, "Walter?"


	16. Interlude: Jameson

Derrick blinked slowly to clear his blurred vision under the blinding glare of fluorescent lightning. The last thing he remembered was silently crying into Alex's shoulder. Now he found himself on a rock-hard military bunk staring up at a brilliant overhead. Derrick sat up and ran his hands through his hair. He was in a small bunkroom, barely ten-by-ten, with ten bunks along each wall. The walls above each bunk were covered in magazine pages, some decidedly raunchy, and photographs. One even had, of all things, a samurai sword set above it. There were several people in the room and they were sleeping like the dead. Derrick scratched his chest and looked down in mild shock to discover he was clothed in only a pair of black boxer-briefs. Of more immediate concern to him was the location of Alex.

Just then the door at the end of the room to his left opened. Jameson walked in, what looked like a popsicle stick in his mouth and an assault rifle in his hand, and headed straight for Derrick. The grizzled soldier, or mercenary if Derrick's guess was right, sat on a bunk to Derrick's left.

"I guess she was right." Jameson said as Derrick swung his legs towards Jameson so he could look him in the eyes.

"Who about what?" He asked groggily.

"That Alex woman." Jameson said with a wicked grin on his face. "She said you'd be up in a few minutes."

"How long was I asleep?"

"Four hours."

"Really? Shit, it feels like I slept a whole day."

Jameson chuckled, "She said it was the T'langen in your blood."

"Where is she?"

"Hit the showers just a few minutes ago, I think."

Derrick shot to his feet, "Where are they?"

Jameson burst into gut-busting laughter that filled the room.

"Shut the fuck up!" One of the sleepers screamed before rolling over.

Jameson quickly brought himself under control.

"Calm down, son. I wanted to ask you a few questions. Besides, we have privacy stalls, so it's not like you could sneak a peek anyway."

Derrick sat down again with a disappointed frown.

"How much do you remember, Derrick?"

_Goddamn, is everyone I meet going to ask me that question?_

"General stuff. Like how to operate an elevator, field strip an assault rifle, have sex. Specific things I have trouble with. I have no idea what kind of sub-machinegun those bastards up top are using or who the President is."

"So nothing about your life at all?"

"No, well, just voices and images. Real brief."

"Well, shit, there goes all my questions." Jameson seemed to shake off approaching dejection with a visible effort.

"Can you tell me anything?" Derrick asked, remembering their earlier conversation.

Jameson fixed him with a grim stare.

"You were part of a Special Operations Squad, multi-service, that was brought to operational status halfway through the MidEast Conflict. You were brought in fresh from Force Recon training and put into a SpecOps school. I don't know much about you before or directly after that but during the war your squad was called Desert Eagles."

"Desert Eagles!" Derrick winced and Jameson shrugged.

"Grunts always have to think of some nickname, usually dumb as fuck, to give their heroes. I think the Arabs had a nickname for you guys that translated into 'I just shit my pants and now I'm gonna die.' "

Derrick and Jameson shared a brief, quite chuckle.

"Anyway, you squad became a goddamn legend by the time the war was over. Never lost a man, saved a lot of units, always got the job done. I have to say I envied and hated the Old Man sometimes."

"Old Man?"

"Jameson, Michael T." Jameson's voice grew soft. "My older brother was your CO. He was always raving about how incredible his boys and girls were. Especially you, Cole. He had you pegged for officer material."

"I don't remember him. I'm sorry."

Jameson's jaw muscles bunched, "It's alright. About a month before the war officially ended my brother told me they were upgrading, what a fuckin' joke that was, your squad to BlackOps status. That was the last I heard from him or anything about the squad, before I took this job."

"How did you end up here and not with the death squads upstairs?"

That shook Jameson from his morbid thoughts.

"Doctor Ogawa wanted his own private security force for the Alpha Project after he got wind of the military's dissatisfaction with the project. Someone, the same person who tipped him off I think, gave him my firm's number."

"Your firm?"

"Yeah, a security firm specializing in paramilitary operations. I left the service after a few inquiries into my brother were stomped flat. I was making decent money, but this job would have made the firm a couple mil easy. 'Course I would have taken it free of charge if I'd known I'd get leads to my brother." Jameson stood. "Well, I've got to make the rounds. The shower's the third door on the left out of the door behind you."

"Wait." Derrick stood, "I'm really sorry I couldn't give you any leads."

"Don't worry about it." Jameson's eyes narrowed slightly. "I think my brother was right about you."

"Did you get any leads?" Derrick asked, genuinely curious.

"Yeah. I talked to Ogawa's inside man and, even though he was voice-masked, he told me to watch out for his boys and girls. So you remember that there's always hope. Oh, yeah, that SMG is an MP5 and the President a colossal asshole. But then again that's nothing new. I'll see you later."

Jameson took his leave and Derrick went to find Alex with a small smile.


	17. Interlude: Shower Fun

The communal shower looked more like a gymnasium locker-room but, given the nature of the place, it was not surprising. Derrick stepped into a white-tiled, on all four walls no less, room with a narrow aisle down its middle. On either side were large lockers with steel benches separating each row. A short, auburn-haired woman paused in the middle of zipping her sweater.

"There are spare clothes in the last set of lockers." Her dark brown eyes twinkled as she looked him up and down. "I could show you. Maybe help you try some on."

Derrick grinned, "As tempting as that is, I really could use a shower."

The woman's skin flushed and she pouted slightly, "Left at the end there."

"Thanks." Derrick said as he hurried past her.

"No problem." He thought she mumbled over the angry zip of her sweater.

Derrick looked right and saw a sign over an archway that read 'toilets'. He went left through an archway and into a circular room. Shower stalls, one obviously meant for multiple occupants, lined the wall. A central display had several sinks and mirrors filled with cosmetics all set around a thick pylon. All of these observations flashed through Derrick's mind in an instant before he zeroed in on a foot disappearing into a stall on his right. He knew who the foot belonged to.

_Goddamnit! Just missed it._

"Alex!" He called and she turned around to peer over the opaque glass stall door.

"Hey, Derrick. Sleep well?"

"Like a rock."

"Wanna join me? We can talk while we shower."

It was like a genie had reached into his head and pulled out his greatest desire.

"Uhm-" He said, the word coming out far less eloquently than he had intended. "I don't think there's room for two."

Alex laughed, "Very funny. Get into the one next to me. We can talk over the partition."

Derrick sighed and stepped into the stall next door. There was a sliding glass cabinet that had towels, washcloths, and even scrubbies in it. A slot underneath it had 'dirty clothes' cleverly stenciled beneath it. He discarded his boxer-briefs in the laundry bin and turned the single knob a little past the warm scale before pressing it in. There was a slight delay before soothingly warm water cascaded from the ceiling. A slot opened above the control knob to reveal a detachable showerhead/massager. Additional slots containing tiny bottles of shampoos, conditioners, body washes, and several bars of soap opened around him.

_I could get used to this._

"So-" Alex said, leaning on the tiled partition with her chin and elbows,"-have you thought about your next move?"

The growing heat of desire was washed away under the sudden tide of anger, paranoia, and survivor's guilt that had built up all day. His hand and forearm flared brightly for a moment.

"No." He said, biting off his words. "I don't know what I should do since I've been led around like an attack dog. You've led me around, to get me here, and now I know why."

"But-" Alex reared back, her expression hurt. "Don't you trust me?"

"I did, I do… fuck!" Derrick grabbed his throbbing heard, turned the shower to cold and let the icy water soothe him somewhat. "Listen, what do I really know, huh? You saved me, more than once, but the entire time you've been pushing me toward Ogawa. I just now found out what this whole mess is about. I still don't know who or _what_ you are."

"My name is Alex Hendrickson and my mission is to protect you in order for you to destroy Nexus." Sometime during Derrick's rant Alex's face had hardened and her voice reflected that. "I'm human but I've been enhanced. Not as greatly as you but enough to make me an exceptional soldier."

"Who sent you?"

"I can't say."

"Why did they send just you?"

"I was all that was left." Alex's icy exterior cracked slightly. "There were more like me once but now I'm all that's left. They were my family."

For a moment Derrick's heart went out to her, for he knew well that sense of loss, but then he remembered how much she still held close.

"How do you know so much about what's going on?"

"I can't say. I can tell you that you are the only one that can save the world and that's no bullshit. The End Time is near and I'm fighting it with or without you."

Alex turned her back to Derrick and quietly began to soap up. Derrick did the same but his actions were automatic as his heart and mind churned from their conversation. They finished about the same time and wordlessly went to the lockers. Alex went to the row across from the shower, it was marked 'women', so Derrick went to the ones opposite. He found clothing that was identical to his previous attire quickly enough. Derrick was lacing up his left boot when the soft sound of crying made him pause. He closed the open locker door that cut his view off and shot to his feet at the sight of Alex's heaving shoulders. Instinct, when it had become such Derrick didn't really know, drove him to her side.

"What's wrong?" He said as he laid a hand on her shoulder.

Alex jerked away from his touch and Derrick was totally unprepared for how much it hurt.

"What the fuck do you care? You're just gonna run away and the world's gonna end. I can't do it alone and you're gonna leave. Just like they all did. I should have died with them. I should have died…"

Alex held up her sidearm, why she still had it Derrick didn't know or care, and made as if to put it to her head. Derrick enfolded her in his arms quick as a flash. She struggled weakly before limply succumbing.

"I care because we're partners." Derrick whispered into her ear. "You're the only family I've got left and if that means going to Hell to kick Lucifer himself in the balls… well, it's a good thing I've got steel-toes on."

"Your jokes are so bad." Alex whispered back before she began laughing quietly.

"Yeah, they are." And then he began to laugh.

_The things I do for my people_.


	18. Acceleration

Derrick and Alex found Ogawa in the control center. There was little time to waste so they got right to the point.

"I'll do it."

"_We'll_ do it." Alex added, nudging Derrick in the side.

Ogawa smiled widely, "Thank you, Derrick. Thank you both. Walter will show you to the armory and I'll meet you in the lab."

Jameson gestured for them to follow him. Derrick was last in line, solely because he liked to watch Alex walk, and paid little attention to the route they. Their first stop was a supply room where they loaded themselves down with ration bars and filled their shoulder canisters with water. Next Jameson led them to a small room lined with weapon racks as well as several armor lockers.

"We've got plenty of ammo," Jameson pointed to a veritable wall of ammo crates at the far end of the room, "Take your pick. We've got MP5's, AKS-74U's, P90's, Desert Eagles, no pun intended, Smith&Wesson 500's, my personal favorites, nine and ten-milly Glock's, and the standard-issue M9."

"I think I'll stick with the MP5. That way I can scavenge if we run into anymore soldiers."

Derrick loaded up and Alex strapped on one of the high-tech looking Magnum Revolvers opposite her sidearm. They both reattached their comm.-gear and put on fresh flak vests.

"We're ready!" Derrick said at Alex's nod.

Jameson led them back to the control room and thunderous applause greeted them. Derrick blinked owlishly before waving in embarrassment as they made their way to the door to the left of the wall monitor. Even several of Jameson's security people were clapping. Finally they made it out of the room and Alex let out a gusty sigh of relief.

"That was weird." She said, with a little grin.

"Tell me about it." Derrick replied in kind.

Jameson chuckled, "C'mon, Doc should have the Accelerator ready by now."

"What is Acceleration?" Derrick asked, slightly uneasy at Jameson's words.

"When you give someone T'langen, a high enough dose anyway, they undergo rapid physical changes. Their metabolism is accelerated but blood pressure tends to drop just as dramatically." Alex's voice became contemplative as they walked. "Most, well all except one person, dies before that change is complete."

Jameson led them to a set of automated doors with the Terminus symbol, as Derrick now thought of it, and they entered the room. It was spacious with a raised area to his right and an observational balcony directly across from him. Several of Jameson's team guarded the exits.

A familiar chatter suddenly erupted from behind the holding tanks lining the left wall.

"Bugs!" Derrick shouted, whipping his SMG up and palming a frag grenade.

"Circle on the Doc!" Jameson barked, stepping back while Alex came to Derrick's side.

When the first Bug crawled from behind the tank, Derrick pulled the pin and lobbed his grenade. Luckily the room was large enough to put them out of the blast radius. Derrick and Alex calmly and systematically cleaned up the remaining Bugs. Then the chittering came to an end. The two turned to find themselves the subjects of gap-jawed stares.

"Alright, that's enough blowjob practice, button it up!" Jameson snapped, "Andreas, Nicolai, move that equipment and find that breach! I'll get a tech. team up here to seal it. The rest of you back to your positions!"

Jameson's people leapt to work while the man himself started growling into his comm.

"This way, Derrick." Ogawa said, and led him up onto the raised area.

There were stands of monitoring equipment surrounding a chair attached to an ominous looking contraption behind it.

"Please sit, Derrick." Ogawa said, and Derrick's eyes settled on the wrist restraints.

"Not until you tell me what's going to happen."

Alex sat atop a green crate to Derrick's right and put one foot on it as she leaned back.

"This will increase your power. Now that you've survived the initial dose there is very little chance of rejection."

"But still a chance I could die?"

"Yes." Ogawa admitted reluctantly.

"Without it, you'll never stand a chance against Solus." Alex added grimly.

"Shit. " Derrick muttered as he took the seat.

"Good, now hold still for a moment."

Ogawa went and retrieved a high-tech serum injector from a tray in front of the chair. To Derrick's relief the arm restraints didn't clamp down. Ogawa held the injector up and nodded slightly.

"This is a highly concentrated solution of T'langen, Derrick. This is what we call 'Accelerator'. Actually I would have liked to spend more time on the purification process, but time is a luxury we do not have. Even at this level of purity it should raise your physical capabilities to a whole new level."

"Glen." Alex called from her perch. "How long will it take the Accelerator to take effect?"

"The effects are immediate. An injection of this much T'langen will trigger a rapid metabolic change in his cells, giving him great power."

"Is it safe?"

_Didn't I just ask that?_

"Derrick will be able to endure it."

"Endure it?" Derrick asked, his face tightening with anger.

"This will only hurt a little." Ogawa took Derrick's right hand in a cool grip. "Derrick, can I ask you something? Who is that girl?"

Before Derrick could answer Ogawa stabbed the needle in and squeezed the trigger. The pinkish liquid drained from the vial quickly. It didn't even sting.

"I don't care who she is. I trust her with my life."

"Well, whoever she is, I don't think she's lying to us. But she doesn't work for the Science Center. How does she know so much?"

The pain hit Derrick like a Bullet Train. He gasped convulsively, the back of his head hit the chair hard, and his right arm burst into brilliant life. This time the pain was much more intense… and in both arms. Derrick looked down and squinted against the light crackling from his arms. He stumbled out of the chair and clutched his right arm.

"What the fuck is that!" A voice shouted over the zap of Derrick's arm.

"This is Acceleration!"

Finally the pain and the light faded as quickly as they had come.

"Is that it?" Alex asked, rubbing her eyes.

Derrick blinked and grinned as he noticed that his health and T'langen gauge had both increased by half. He hadn't really paid much attention lately but he was now.

_Damn, and don't I feel _good_._

"Yes. The amount of receptors in his body has increased in response to the additional T'langen."

"So that's it? Now we're ready to face Nexus. How do we get to Site Zero?"

"You could take the direct-access elevator. You can get to it through-"

"F-Block." Alex finished for him.

"You _are_ well informed."

"Okay, let's go kick some ass!" Derrick grinned at Alex's enthusiasm.

The sound of an automated door opening drew everyone's attention to the observation balcony. It was like they were all moving in extreme slow motion. Derrick was barely half-turned when the whine of an Assault T'lan's weapon filled the room.

"Down!" Jameson roared, shoving Ogawa to the ground behind the treatment chair.

A laser beam, or whatever energy Assault T'lan used, speared through the space Ogawa had recently occupied. Alex rolled behind her crate for cover and Derrick dive-rolled to her join her. Jameson's men opened up from around the room but it was like gnats attacked a windshield.

"Ideas?" Alex asked, not even bothering to draw her sidearm.

"Bring down the catwalk?"

Alex shook her head, "It's reinforced. Probably take at least two C-4 charges."

Derrick ground his teeth in frustration. The bastard would just pick them all off at its leisure. His right arm suddenly flared and bright blue light seeped from between his clenched first. Derrick opened his hand and frowned at the pea-sized blue sphere nestled in his palm.

_Maybe I could chuck it at that bastard if it were bigger._

To his shock the sphere pulsed and seemed to grow in size.

_Fuck, I feel stupid, but…_grow_!_

Derrick concentrated as hard as he could and the damn thing began to quickly swell until it was the size of a melon. Blue arcs of energy crackled off the sphere to surround it in a faint corona.

_Here goes nothin'_, Derrick thought and stood up from cover.

Derrick hurled it with all his might at the T'lan's torso. The pulse-sphere seemed to wail as it streaked across the room to impact the T'lan's chest with a blinding flash. The Assault T'lan staggered forward, futilely clutching the hole in its chest, and fell over the safety rail with a death shriek. Another Assault T'lan emerged from the doors and leapt over the rail to land in front of its dead comrade.

"Motherfuck-!" Someone shouted and automatic weapons fire drowned out the rest.

"I've got it, Derrick!" Alex shouted and sprinted towards the holding tanks.

Derrick took a step and the pain of Acceleration hit him. Both arms lit up like Christmas trees but the pain was far less than even the first time. Derrick gritted his teeth against the pain and sprinted for the rail. The T'lan was already raising its weapon.

_I'm not gonna make it_, Derrick thought and jumped off the rail anyway.

Time seemed to slow down again as the pain of Acceleration vanished. His arms remained alight though and Derrick felt the most peculiar sensation throughout his body. Then it seemed to converge, and then throb almost painfully, in his right leg. Everything passed in a blur of motion and Derrick's right boot hit the T'lan's sternum with a sharp crack. The Assault T'lan flew four meters back, hit the wall beneath the balcony, and rebounded to the floor with a low death wail. An accompanying cry from across the room told him Alex was still alive.

"Amazing!" Ogawa's voice seemed to overflow with pride.

"Is that your new power?" Alex asked, her voice oddly disappointed.

"You just might have a chance of beating Nexus." Ogawa sounded as though he hadn't believed it until that moment.

"Sir-," Jameson said, "-this location is compromised. We have to evac to Beta right now. Preparations are already under way."

"Yes, yes." Ogawa shook Derrick's arm. "I know you can do it."

Jameson gripped Derrick's shoulder, "I'll be monitoring channel nine. You need any intel just let me know." Jameson smiled widely, "The Old Man was right about you, Cole. I'd wish you luck but Nexus probably needs it more."

Both men had words for Alex but Derrick didn't catch them.

"C'mon, Derrick." She said after everyone was gone.

Derrick flexed his fists, concentrated, and both arms crackled for a second.

_I think I like Acceleration._


	19. Alone Again

Derrick and Alex trotted through a series of corridors and doors until they came to another massive door like the one they had first entered Terminus 4 by. Alex did her code magic and they once again entered the airlock chamber. The exit door opened and Alex took a step outside the chamber.

"Shit!" She exclaimed and dived to the left to avoid a T'lan laser blast.

A baseball-sized pulse-sphere was in Derrick's hand and hitting the offending T'lan in the face within a second. There were three of them and the other two lowered their weapons to get a bead on him. Derrick leaped off the stairs, visualized what he wanted, and suddenly he was dashing through the air to deliver a flying jump-kick to the Assault T'lan's head. Once his left foot hit the floor, Derrick spun to deliver a devastating sidekick that catapulted this T'lan into the one he had nailed with a pulse-sphere. Derrick finished the jump-kicked T'lan off with a straight punch to the throat. He turned and saw Alex drag her combat knife across a kneeling T'lan's throat. The other T'lan already lay lifeless in a spreading pool of white fluid.

"You alright, Alex?" Derrick asked, moving toward her as she stood.

"Yeah, just a blister." Alex held up right hand up to show Derrick a wound that already looked several days old.

Derrick nodded and they cautiously advanced up the steps to the right of the vault door. The next corridor had a high-ceiling and was virtually empty. Then Derrick heard two 'Beats' and froze in his tracks.

"What?" Alex whispered.

"I hear something."

"Where?"

"Two." Derrick gestured to an adjacent corridor three meters ahead on the right wall.

"I'll be the rabbit." Alex offered and Derrick clenched his fist before charging up a pulse-sphere.

Alex darted past the corridor opening and several beams lanced after her. Derrick sidestepped into the corridor and fired at the kneeling Assault T'lan in a doorway at the end of the corridor. He was sprinting toward the closer T'lan as his pulse-sphere streaked past it. Derrick once again visualized himself striking with awesome power and his body obliged him. His right hand lashed out to latch onto the top of the Assault T'lan's face, lifted its feet off the ground, and carried it with Derrick all the way to the doorway. Derrick's momentum came to an abrupt halt as he slammed the T'lan's skull into the side of the doorway. An impact crater twice the size of the T'lan's head was left. He let the T'lan drop, leaving a brilliant white smear on the wall, and dropped to his knees with sudden exhaustion.

"What's wrong?" Alex asked, rushing to his side.

"I don't know." Derrick was about to say something else when the flashing red of his T'langen gauge caught his eye.

The corpse in front of him began to dissolve into blue spheres of light that coalesced into a single one about the size of an orange. Derrick held his hand out and his forearm lit up as the energy flowed into his palm. His T'langen gauge filled up and his exhaustion quickly vanished.

"I'm okay now." Derrick said as he rose to his feet. "Just needed a pick-me-up."

Alex nodded and they continued through the doorway. She led them to a set of push-button doors that opened up into a narrow corridor that gently curved to the left. It ended in another set of push-buttons. Alex hit the button and the doors opened to reveal an Assault T'lan.

"Of fucking course!" Derrrick snapped as he and Alex took cover on either side of the door.

Derrick charged up a pulse-sphere, stepped into the doorway, and the rock-hard shoulder of a T'lan Warrior hit him in the sternum. The pulse-sphere splattered harmlessly against a wall as Derrick was driven to the ground.

"Fuck!" Alex shouted, and then began giving low grunts of exertion.

Derrick had the Warrior's iron grip around his throat while the bastard ponderously raised his fist. As strong as Derrick was now he couldn't break its grip. He was seeing spots when the Warrior brought its fist down. Derrick wrenched his head to the side and felt the vibration beneath his head when the Warrior struck the floor. He arched his back and, without thought, sinuously wrapped a leg around the T'lan's bicep and neck.

_What the fuck am I doing?_ Derrick thought as he clenched and rolled.

Several lightning-fast moves later Derrick and the Warrior were in a complex tangle of limbs. The Warrior's neck and right arm were at angles not conducive to life. Derrick was in the process of straightening out when a laser beam sliced the inside of his thigh and nearly unmanned him. With an angry hiss Derrick sat up and launched a fully charged pulse-sphere at the Assault T'lan. With his breath rasping and his left arm throbbing from a stressed joint, Derrick flopped onto his back before the pulse-sphere reached its target.

"Al-" Derrick paused to cough up a bloody wad of phlegm, "Alex?"

"I'm here, Derrick. We beat their asses good."

"Yeah." Derrick didn't even bother to move the T'lan's body.

When the body began to dissolve Derrick simply imagined himself as an empty vessel for filling. The T'lan's life energy surged into him with almost conscious urgency. Derrick writhed for a moment, listening to Alex softly chew on a ration bar, before feeling steady enough to rise to his feet.

"Shit, I just got these." Derrick said, gesturing at the neat tear in his pants.

Alex shrugged and gestured to her T'lan blood covered flak vest.

"Let's keep moving." Alex said, and started walking before Derrick could respond.

Derrick followed her with a grin into a higher, wider corridor. Alex passed the first side corridor and entered the second. A set of automated doors were quickly passed through. The next room was square and on the opposite wall was a large 'F'. The majority of the wall looked like the doors of a cargo elevator. His guess was confirmed when Alex hit a call button to the right of the door. They waited side-by-side until the sound of the automated doors made them turn. All Derrick needed to push Alex into the cover of a handy pylon was the whine of an Assault T'lan's weapon. Despite the laser beams streaking past their cover, Derrick couldn't help but register the closeness of Alex's body. Their eyes met, locked, and something ancient passed between them.

"The doors are open." Alex's voice was quiet. "We go on three." Derrick nodded, "One… two… three!"

Alex pushed off the pylon and Derrick held onto her as they careened into the elevator. They landed hard somewhere near the center and rolled to their left. Derrick let Alex go and rapid-fired three mid-sized pulse-spheres at the T'lan. It distracted them long enough for Alex to hit the descend button. Once the doors closed Derrick breathed a sigh of relief.

"This should take us straight down to Site Zero." Alex said, sliding down to sit besides Derrick.

Ten seconds later the lights went out and the elevator shook hard. The next thing Derrick knew, Alex was sprawled on top of him and he had hands full of tit and ass-cheek. For a moment they lay there, faces inches apart, and then Alex spoke.

"If I didn't know any better I'd swear you did that on purpose."

Derrick grinned, not surprised when she did too, "What would give you that idea?"

"Because you haven't let go yet. Stop fucking around and let's get out of here."

"You're the boss." Derrick released Alex from his clutches with a satisfied smirk.

_Oh. _Was all Derrick could think as Alex got up with a forceful thrust of her pelvis.

Alex hit the emergency door release and the doors opened to reveal a floor only a couple meters above them.

"You first." Derrick feigned innocence at the order. "You've got enough freebies for today."

Derrick pulled himself up to the next level with a grin. He turned just as the emergency brakes gave way and Alex's face vanished.

"Alex!" His own roar nearly drowned out Alex's startled scream.

"No!"

Derrick watched as the elevator plummeted amidst a shower of sparks and the ear-splitting sound of tortured metal. Then the sound of auxiliary clamps halting the elevators disastrous fall came to him like a choir of angels. Gradually all noise subsided.

"Alex?"

"Derrick!" Alex's voice eased the tightness in Derrick's chest, "I'm okay, but there's no way I can get back up there!"

"No shit! Unless you can turn into the fucking Hulk!"

"When I see you again remind me to fuck you up!"

"Sure I'll remind you to fuck me!"

It probably wasn't a good idea to give their positions away with the exchange but Derrick was so glad she was alive he didn't care.

"Let's go ahead separately." Alex suddenly turned serious. "I'll see you at the entrance to Site Zero! Be careful!"

"You too!" Derrick called and then there was silence.

Derrick turned and nearly ran into a wall. Apparently he had failed to notice that he was on a maintenance ledge in the elevator shaft. An open ventilation duct was his only out.

_Alone again_, Derrick thought grimly as he crawled into the duct.


	20. First Lieutenant

It only took a minute of duct-crawling for a vague feeling of melancholy to worm its way into Derrick's head. Maybe it was the grim atmosphere of the vent duct but Derrick strongly suspected it had more to do with the absence of Alex's rock-solid presence. It was a bit unsettling how quickly he had gotten attached to Alex.

_Maybe I just need to get laid_. Derrick knew the answer was more complicated.

Derrick cast the distracting thoughts from his mind and concentrated on his immediate circumstances. He came to a dead-end that wasn't quite so dead thanks to an access grate in the floor. Derrick did a slow count of thirty, held his breath, and listened for any occupants in the room below. He heard not a thing, drew in several breaths, kicked the grate down, and dropped through.

As soon as Derrick's feet hit the floor he heard the terrifying buzz of T'lan Bugs. The little bastards came around the right corner of the alcove Derrick had dropped into. He dropped to one knee and fired economically. Soon the last Bug had detonated and the room seemed clear. As he reloaded, Derrick wondered if he should try to contact Alex or Jameson.

_Better not chance it_, Derrick thought as he searched the room and discovered it was a utility closet. _Those bastards'll probably have me zero'd instantly._

The exit door was to the left of the alcove, and led out back the way he had come through the vent shaft, and Derrick stepped into an open area with a flight of stairs on the right wall. At the top a hall went right and Derrick confidently advanced down it. After a few steps he noticed a barely audible, droning sort of hum that got louder as he approached. Derrick slowed his pace, inching his way forward around the corner, and froze in astonishment.

It looked like a heavy-duty freight corridor. There was even a lane divider down the black-top lane dividing the corridor. Quakes, and what looked like a hellish firefight, had heavily damaged it. But what astonished Derrick the most, were the organic-looking globes that idly floating up and down its length. The globes were the size of basketballs and pulsed with a brilliant white light.

_Well, you don't see that every day._

Derrick stepped down the ramp leading to the freight lane and froze again as the closest group suddenly began coming toward him.

_Great! Even the fucking _light bulbs_!_

Derrick raised his weapon, fired, and covered his eyes as the Bulb he had targeted exploded like a concussion grenade. The resultant force triggered the others and the combined concussion nearly tossed Derrick away.

The droning suddenly seemed angry.

_Oh, fuck me._

Derrick skipped his way back up the ramp and fired three-round bursts from the hip. Thankfully the Bulbs, even at top speed, were not very fast. It took an entire clip to clear the room but finally the droning stopped.

An emergency bulkhead had dropped to seal off the corridor to Derrick's left. While the first bulkhead to his right was open, the second looked like it had sustained explosive damage. There were doors on the concrete walkways on either side of the freight lane. The ones on the left were green-lit so Derrick opted to go that way. He stepped through into more freight corridor and two figures just past the next bulkhead marker turned towards him. Derrick tightened his MP5 to his chest and clenched his fists as he recognized their profiles.

_Warriors-_, his hands and forearms flared, _I can handle them._

But as they got closer Derrick saw that these two were different. Their chitin armor was colored more like an Assault T'lan, their complexions weren't as ghostly as Warriors, their chests were covered except for a strip down the middle, and they didn't have visible mouths. They also moved with a heavy grace Derrick hadn't encountered in any T'lan Warrior. Derrick moved into the center of the lane to give himself more room and then these new T'lan were upon him.

The lead one came at him with a leaping jump-kick that Derrick easily dodged… right into the path of the opposite leg as it scythed around. Derrick barely ducked in time to avoid the devastating attack. A foot hurtled at Derrick's face and only a last second roll saved him from having his vertebrae compacted. What felt like a sledgehammer hit Derrick in the kidneys as he was scrambling to his feet. He turned, his arms already up, and blocked a vicious roundhouse kick. The power in that blow hurled Derrick from his feet and into the wall five meters behind him. His shield flared from the impact with the wall. Derrick wiped a spot of blood from his lips as he landed on his feet.

_So these fucks are faster, stronger, and trained. They must be elite. I must be getting important if they're upping the ante. Guess I should too._

Derrick charged the nearest T'lan Elite at full speed, leapt from the top of the incline, and delivered a Focused aerial front-kick. Somehow the T'lan raised crossed arms to block the attack. Unfortunately for it, the power of Derrick's kick snapped both of its forearms like dry twigs. It didn't even whimper as it careened into the incline on the opposite side of the lane. Footsteps on Derrick's left made a small pulse-sphere swell in his hand. Without looking, for Derrick was in that state where he could feel a T'lan's very presence, he launched the pulse-sphere into the T'lan's eyes. It staggered, clutching its face, and then Derrick was there. He placed his hands on the T'lan's shoulders, planted a knee into its abdomen, and fell backwards in a modified judo throw that ended with Derrick in the mount position. Derrick hugged the T'lan's head to his MP5 covered chest and broke its neck with a muffled crack.

_When the fuck did I learn judo?_ Derrick wondered a millisecond before instinct brought his hand up to catch a ridge-knuckled jab aimed squarely at his carotid.

Derrick's hand flashed to a blinding intensity as he squeezed until the chitin began to crack beneath his grip. The Elite tried for a short hook to Derrick's ribs but Derrick slapped it away almost lazily. Derrick's other hand darted forward to deliver a palm-strike that made the offending arm go limp. Derrick let the crushed wrist go and delivered a rapid-fire series of jabs to the T'lan's torso.

With detached interest Derrick noted the increased speed and power of his strikes even when he wasn't Focusing. He also noted how the white traceries in his arms shifted to a light yellow color with every impact. Then Derrick ended it with a spinning roundhouse kick that twisted the T'lan through the air to land in a deceased heap several meters away.

Derrick took several deep breaths to get his heartbeat on the way back to normal before continuing towards where the T'lan Elites had come from. The whine of an Assault T'lan's laser weapon was the only warning Derrick got but it was enough. Derrick leapt straight up, a vertical jump of at least two meters, and three laser beams passed beneath him. Three mid-sized pulse-spheres rocketed towards the Assault T'lan before Derrick's feet hit the floor. Once they did he sprinted up the access ramp the ambush came from. Then he was among them sowing havoc and soon they were all dead.

_Damn, they aren't worth a shit up close and personal._

Derrick paused to absorb a dose of T'langen energy. Healing that kidney shot and the subsequent fights had drained his meter by a third. The emergency bulkhead at this end was damaged and the doors locked down. There was a green-lit door opposite the Assault T'lan and Derrick went to it. He threw it open and was greeted by a T'lan Bulb only a meter away.

"Fuck!" Derrick leapt backward with all his might and gasped as he sailed backwards to the middle of the lane.

Derrick flipped and watched as the Bulb swelled and detonated. A long series of detonations told him there had been more clustered behind the first. Derrick waited several seconds before cautiously entered the room with his MP5 leading the way. The room turned left and ended at another door. Derrick turned the knob and pulled it open as he hopped backwards.

Nothing came through and Derrick continued forward. The next room went left and Derrick followed the same procedure. This time the door opened into a tiny dark space. The door was surrounded by cargo containers. The sound of Assault T'lan lasers suddenly erupted only to have an unfamiliar whine act as counterpoint. Derrick quickly climbed his way to the top of the containers and jumped down. In what looked to be a darkened warehouse, a group of T'lan stood in the center of a spotlight. They were firing into the darkened room… and lances of blue light were answering them. Derrick stood back and watched with glee as four beams sliced a T'lan into three separate pieces.

_I guess someone put the rush job on those T'lan-killing laser weapons._

Finally the last Assault T'lan was down. It looked like Derrick's only viable exit was in that room. He really didn't want to go up against soldiers with those weapons, especially when he couldn't see them, so he opted to wait.

Derrick spun at the whine of a T'lan laser. He snatched the outstretched weapon, grabbed the elbow with his other hand, and flung the T'lan forward. Derrick followed with a leap and when the T'lan landed he came down on the back of its neck. It was then that he discovered he had put himself, literally, in the spotlight.

_Aw, fuck_, he thought as he readied his SMG

"Hold your fire!"

Someone seemed to think it was an order to fire and Derrick rolled forward as a laser scorched the floor behind him.

"I said hold your fucking fire, you stupid maggots! Goddamn grunts!" Arich, bass voice shouted as a shutter at the far end was raised.

The main lights came on and Derrick could see he was thoroughly surrounded. An entire squad manned the catwalk ringing the warehouse. A lone soldier came to stand by the tall man walking towards Derrick.

"Hey, pal, stand down. At ease, soldier." The man stepped up with cocky grin, "We're the good guys."

Derrick lowered his weapon, "Good guys, huh? You sure do look like the fucks that are killing everything that moves."

"Well-," The man's grin disappeared into a grimace. "We don't make fucking policy."

Derrick nodded solemnly because his gut told him the man was right on the money. The soldier looked liked the model soldier for a recruitment poster except for his mutton chops but even they were sharply cut.

"Yer a tough hombre. I thought we were the only ones who could stand up to the fucking T'lan."

Derrick grinned, "And here I thought I was the only one crazy enough to try."

"Fuck, you _are_ crazy, doing it with your bare hands. If that ain't a kick in the balls." The squadleader shook his head. "It's one intelligence failure after another. The officers don't know jackshit about the situation down here!"

Derrick barked laughter, "When did that get new?"

The man returned his laugh, "You've got a point."

"Sir!" One of the men on the catwalk yelled. "That man's Derrick Cole!"

"Ah… well then that explains it."

Derrick felt his face turn to stone.

"Hey, relax, Derrick." He stepped closer, "I'm First Lieutenant Gianni De Luca. Just call me Gianni. We've been ordered to go underground and destroy Nexus."

"But that's classified information, sir!" The catwalk soldier shouted.

"And when I give a fuck I'll let you know! Now shut your fucking hole, private!" Gianni shouted back. "Now listen, Cole… my squad takes orders from higher up the chain of command and we've got no orders to kill you."

"Well, that's a relief."

"Yeah, so let's not get in each other's way. Deal?"

"You got it." They shook hands on it.

"Thanks a lot, pal. We'll move as soon as reinforcements arrive. You'd better get going right away, pal. The next squadleader might not be as understanding, you know."

"How do I get to Site Zero?"

"You don't wanna go our way. It's full of Allied soldiers that'll pump you full of lead. There's a vent duct back that way. Just keep heading down. You'll find the way. Be careful though. There's all kinds of isolated squads running around down here."

"Okay." Derrick locked his gaze on the shoulder-fired anti-T'lan laser weapon. The huge, triple-pronged end of the barrel continuously rotated and a large battery pack was visible on the back end. "Say… can I get one of those?"

"Sorry, pal, only one per soldier. They cost a shitload supposedly."

"Damn. Alright, see ya."

"See ya around, pal."

Derrick saw the open duct in the room Gianni had come from and slid into it.

"I've _gotta _get one of those." Derrick mumbled as he made his way.


	21. Solus Returns

This time Derrick dropped into a darkened stairwell. The stairs behind him were blocked by rubble. Those stairs went back up anyway, so that left the door in front of him. Derrick eased the door open and stepped into a small room with a security camera in the corner to his right. Also to his right was a doorway that led to a much more open area. It looked like a silo of some kind, ringed by a catwalk, and with a skylight.

_No fucking way that's real sunlight. We're too far underground. What a fucking waste._

The scream of an MP5 on fully automatic deafened him a millisecond after his shield came under fire from the right. Derrick turned with a glare to fix his gaze on a panicked soldier who was slowly backing away. The man was firing across a three meter gap in the catwalk and he still backed up.

_I can't believe he got the drop on me_, Derrick thought as he dropped the soldier with a single burst to his clavicle region.

The crystalline sound of his shield, as well as the minute pressure, didn't stop. Derrick looked over the side of the catwalk to discover that there were two more levels before a long ass set of stairs to reach the ground floor. It looked like each catwalk was manned by a soldier.

_Better and better._

Derrick hoped over the catwalk's guardrail, towards the gap, and dropped four meters to the next level. He took the impact with a slight flex of his knees that sent him hurtling for the soldier staring gap-jawed only a few meters away. Derrick didn't stop and merely delivered a palm-strike that split his enemy's helmet and snapped his neck. The remaining soldier let out an inarticulate cry of terror and turned to run. Derrick leapt forward, kicked off the wall to his left, and snapped his opposite foot out to catch the soldier in the head. Unfortunately Derrick misjudged the power of his kick and both of them soared into the open space of the silo. Derrick managed to snag the guardrail with one hand while the limp body of the soldier careened to the bottom.

Then several someone's started shooting him in the ass.

At this point his T'langen gauge was reduced by a quarter and dropping fast. Derrick looked down just in time to see two soldiers hustling their way down the flights of stairs leading to the bottom.

_That makes thing easier._

Derrick let go of the guardrail, dropped down three meters, kicked off the guardrail, and executed a near-perfect backflip. Time seemed to crawl for just an instant and Derrick killed three of the four remaining soldiers before his clip ran dry. Two more flips and Derrick landed on one knee as the last soldier pulled the pin on a grenade. A pulse-sphere detonated the grenade before the man could even pull his arm back for the throw. Derrick reloaded mechanically as he watched the man's twitching lower half fall to the ground. He salvaged a spare clip from the nearest body before examining the massive double doors blocking his way. A single rail-track disappeared beneath them. It looked like cargo was transported through here.

_They probably bring it through the freight corridor, lower it through the "skylight", and ship it down the tunnel_. Derrick spit in disgust. _How much fucking money went into this place? Fucking government spending._

Each of the doors had the Research Center's logo on them. There was a big ass switch to the left of the antiquated doors. Derrick pulled the switch down and a yellow warning light began to flash. A klaxon cried as the doors opened with surprising speed. Of course blocks of rubble blocked the rail but Derrick easily traversed those. The sound of a railcar stopped Derrick in his tracks. He unclipped a grenade from his harness just as the yellow railcar rounded the turn at the end of the high-ceilinged corridor. It was a large, complicated looking vehicle, but that was the least of Derrick's worries.

The four soldiers in the vehicle were a big problem.

Derrick pulled the pin and hurled the grenade at the goggles of the lead soldier.

"Grenade!"

The warning came too late for the targeted soldier as the grenade hit him squarely in the mouth. There was a desperate scramble and then the grenade detonated.

"Ye-" Derrick's shout of victory vanished under a muttered curse. "Fuuuck!"

The railcar, wreathed in flames, was still barreling towards Derrick. Derrick hurled himself forward and to the left. He rolled as the railcar hit the rubble and a secondary explosion cracked it down the middle. After the noise died down, Derrick stood and brushed the debris off his clothes.

"S-s-somebody help!" a young, frightened voice shouted.

Derrick raised his MP5 and advanced on a crispy figure pinned beneath a heavy rack that had once lined the tunnel. The soldier's helmet was missing, along with his goggles, to reveal a boyish face. Derrick raised his MP5 but couldn't bring himself to fire as he looked at the kid's huge, liquid brown eyes.

"Goddamnit." He muttered, cinching his MP5, as he moved to a better spot along the rack's side.

"Y-you're not gonna kill me?" The kid asked pathetically.

"No." Derrick said as he placed both hands under the rock. "Not today."

Derrick's hand flared to white, and then crackled to yellow, as his muscles strained to lift the huge rack. Finally it began to rise and within seconds there was enough room for the kid to slide out. Derrick dropped the rack with a relieved grunt and stretched his aching arms over his head. Something made a soft click and Derrick's instincts dropped him flat. A hollow thump echoed in the room and something whistled past the space Derrick had recently occupied. He drew his sidearm and fired several times before standing. He walked over to the kid, who still had one hand clutching a sleek looking grenade launcher, and stepped on the kid's chest before putting a bullet in his brain.

"Stupid fucker."

A search of his corpse revealed no additional ammo for the grenade launcher and Derrick was sorely disappointed. He continued moving down the tunnel after reloading his weapons. Ten meters down the left turn was a rail-station complete with a track switch. The body of a scientist was at the bottom of a flight of stairs leading to an overlook. The poor bastard had left several smears of blood along the wall. Derrick cautiously moved up the stairs, expecting trouble at any minute, and hit a veritable gold mine. There, scattered around the body of a scientist, was a pair of advanced rocket launchers. They were a meter and a half long with a normal barrel and blowback outlet. A large magazine protruded from the top of the back-end and housed the mini-rockets the launcher fired. Derrick picked one up, powered it on, and nearly had an orgasm when he saw that the magazine had a full load of seven.

_I wonder- No, I'm not gonna look this gift horse in the mouth._

Derrick strapped the rocket launcher to his back and was surprised when he barely noticed the extra weight. He looked at the track tunnel, blocked by scaffolding, and figured he could get through it easily. Then he looked at the parked railcar and smiled.

_Why walk when you can ride? _Derrick quickly hopped into the railcar and studied the controls._ You've gotta be fucking kidding me!_

There were two buttons, brightly lit and prominently displayed, that had arrow symbols.

_Talk about user-friendly._

Derrick hit the back arrow and the railcar went backwards until it hit a stop-log. He jumped out, jogged to the track switch, and pulled back the lever. Once he was back in the car he rubbed his hands together in anticipation.

_Here we go._

Derrick hit the forward button and the car lurched into motion. It switched tracks smoothly and started to pick up speed. He ducked quickly as the railcar hurtled towards the first scaffold. Three hard bumps and a lot of debris later he was through. The tunnel was small, just big enough for the railcar and a walkway on the right, and dimly lit by intermittent halogens. So when Derrick first saw the brighter lights he thought he was getting close to the end. Then he noticed that there were multiple lights and they were floating.

_Fuck!_ Derrick swore for what felt like the thousandth time that day and readied his MP5.

Derrick maintained his cool as the railcar rushed towards the T'lan LightBulbs. Short, controlled bursts were the way to go but his mag ran dry just as the last group exploded.

_Hope there aren't too many more of those bastards._

The tunnel ascended and continued through a number of turns. Derrick was very glad he had decided not to walk. An open area appeared along the right side of the track and the railcar started to slow down. Derrick repeatedly hit the forward button but it continued to decelerate. A small station was on the right and Derrick saw that someone had lowered a crossing board or whatever you called the things. As soon as Derrick stepped off the car his shield obscured his vision. Several soldiers popped out of cover and let loose with assault rifle fire. Derrick's shield started dropping faster than a slut's underwear.

"Frag out!"

Derrick dove over a stack of crates and collided with a soldier that had taken cover behind them. The man was dressed in BlackOps gear without a helmet and that made it all the easier to smash his head like a watermelon against the concrete floor. The grenade went off and a second later someone started shouting.

"Did we get him!? Where's McDonny?!"

Derrick stood and three long bursts silenced them forever. As he policed their bodies, Derrick studied their uniforms. They were definitely BlackOps but they all had a weird insignia that he didn't recognize. Derrick shrugged, raised the crossguard with the push of a button, and continued his train ride. Of course it wasn't perfectly peaceful because there were more LightBulbs down this stretch. The tunnel descended and there were no more LightBulbs down the next length of tunnel. When the path straightened, Derrick thought he was on easy street.

Then the massive report of a tank's main cannon deafened him as the shell whistled past his head.

_Motherfuck!_

Derrick jumped out of the speeding railcar, somehow maintaining his balance on the walkway while sliding like it was ice, and unshipped his launcher just as the railcar exploded from a direct hit. Before the smoke cleared, Derrick depressed the firing stud and sent a mini-rocket screaming at the tank.

_Just to be on the safe side_... Derrick fired another rocket a second later.

Three explosions blended into one that shook the tunnel around him. Derrick secured his launcher and went forward to survey his handiwork. The tank was a shredded, half-melted mess and the remains of several soldiers were scattered everywhere. Derrick went around the wreckage with a shake of his head.

_Who puts a goddamn tank in a tunnel!?_

There was a cave-in at this end and the large doors were out of commission. A narrow hallway, right behind the tank wreckage, was only partially blocked. Derrick crawled beneath the blockage and walked down a narrow stairwell to a door. Derrick stepped into a low, wide corridor lit by infrequent overhead fluorescents. The right was a dead-end and directly ahead of him was a familiar pattern of blood-splatter on the wall.

_Looks like T'lan have been crushing heads._

Derrick made sure to tighten all his straps and debated leaving his launcher behind.

_Fuck it, worse comes to worse its got an emergency release._

Derrick was turning the left corner when the electrical pain of pre-Acceleration hit him. Only his right arm crackled with yellow lightning this time. The pain faded fast and Derrick flexed his fist with a frown.

_How many times can you go through Acceleration? I bet they don't even really know._

The body of a soldier was just around the corner and the severe angle of his limbs gave credence to Derrick's theory. There was another body slumped against a wall at the bottom of an incline. Derrick was halfway there when the pain of Acceleration hit him full force. Both forearms lit up bright enough to illuminate the hall.

Two T'lan Elites rounded the corner as Derrick was mastering the pain.

With an almost visible contempt, the leader gripped Derrick's face and slammed the back of his head into a wall. Starbursts blinded him for a moment and blood started leaking from his nose into his mouth. All of that was as nothing to Acceleration until the light faded and the pain called forth anger.

_Get the fuck _off!

Then something extraordinary happened.

It looked like a ring of… liquefied air burst from Derrick. The T'lan were flung away by the ring like paperweights to smash into the opposite wall hard enough to leave tiny craters. Derrick, blood slowly leaking from his nose, charged a pulse-sphere and released it point-blank into the one-who-hadn't-been-about-to-kill-him's face. Then, in a flash, Derrick had his hand around the lead T'lan's skull and was repeatedly smashing it into the wall. Finally the body faded and Derrick absorbed the energy to stop the intense throbbing in his skull. The other had formed a T'langen energy ball and that new power had drained his T'langen gauge. Once Derrick had absorbed the T'langen energy he continued on his way.

At the bottom of the incline Derrick turned left where, at the bottom of _another_ incline, was a door. Upon entering it Derrick found himself in a small maintenance room. There were no obvious exits but Derrick could just barely see a vent duct on a crawl space above him to his right. He hauled himself up onto the space and slid into the duct.

Several turns later Derrick found himself staring at a gap in the duct. Luckily it was in a room that he could drop down into. It was a larger maintenance area and he had dropped onto a grated raised section. There was a door that he jumped down a small set of steps to get to. His hand was on the handle when a loud metallic, thumping made him turn. In the darkened shadows beneath the grate was a slender ventilation duct. Right now something was making the sides bulge out and Derrick had an idea just what that was. A quick check to see if anything flammable was near and Derrick rolled a live grenade towards the duct. One end blossomed open to reveal a swarm of T'lan Bugs that were instantly destroyed by the grenade's detonation.

Derrick opened the door with a grin and shouted, "Shit!"

A cave-in had blocked the way. Derrick turned and eyed the blasted-open vent duct. With a weary sigh, Derrick unshipped his launcher, crawled under the grate, and then went to his belly to worm his way through the vent.

Thankfully on the other side of the wall was another grated section. Derrick crab-walked his out and continued down another gray corridor. This one went down several levels before Derrick came to a small construction area swarming with Bugs. A grenade took care of them quite nicely. So Derrick was feeling pretty good, despite the fact that the corridor went back up, right until he turned a corner and heard someone scream in pain.

Derrick focused and heard a very faint Beat coming from the door in front of him. He reached out and opened the door only to have static blur his vision. The damn cat trotted into the room only to disappear.

"Derrick!" A familiar, yet distorted voice called his name.

"Alex?" Derrick turned to the voice and shook his head as his eyes watered from the ghostly blue-white hue everything had taken on.

Something was seriously wrong with Alex. She walked all wrong and her face… it was half-missing. No, it was just that half of her face was _not_ her face. Someone came down the stairs at the far end of the room.

It was Alex.

Just then the closer pseudo-Alex slashed at him with the claws of a Stealth T'lan. The next few moments passed like a dream Derrick wasn't entirely sure he was not having. A horrible dream where he had to kill Alex multiple times. On the third Alex-clone, in the second room, after he had beaten her to death the static returned. Laying dead before him was a Stealth T'lan. Derrick's relief made his knees weak.

_Get a grip, Derrick. Shee-it_. Derrick breathed out explosively and left the room.

The door let him out into another gray corridor. He turned a corner and nearly ran into a tripwire hooked up to a shitload of C-4.

_No wonder the whole fucking place is collapsing._

Derrick crawled under the chest-high wire without incident and continued up a slope. A shutter brought him up short after turning left but that was overcome with the push of a button. Another tripwire, this one at ankle-height, waited just outside the doors. A simple hop and he was back on track. Derrick turned left at a T-junction, because the way ahead was dead, and took a right at the bottom of an incline. There was a door there and Derrick confidently pulled it open.

Something… a sinister presence made him turn to stare into the crystalline blue eyes of Solus.

"Hey, fucker!" Derrick exclaimed, cracking his knuckles by squeezing his fists. "I've been waiting."

"Object: Human. Hypothesis: Destination Nexus."

"Yeah. You gonna stop me?" Derrick said, grinning wildly.

Solus laughed, mechanically and completely condescendingly, before he replied.

"You gonna stop me." The white-haired bastard patted his chest. "I… Solus. Solus objective: Monitor enemy activity. Terminate threat. Protect Nexus. Terminate!"

"I guess we've got a problem then!"

_I hope this works._

Derrick focused on pushing the bastard back. A peculiar sensation of pressure built in his chest and when Derrick relaxed the wave of force blasted Solus back into the wall seven meters behind him. Derrick was there before Solus' feet hit the floor and delivered an underhand jab to the gut that lifted Solus back against the wall. Derrick unleashed a barrage of jabs to Solus' torso before giving him an uppercut that propelled them both towards the ceiling. As they were rising Derrick executed a Focused spin-kick that planted Solus in his own little hole two meters off the floor. Derrick landed with his back to Solus and turned when he hit the ground.

"Impressive." Solus said, standing not a meter away, as he licked a spot of whitish blood from his bottom lip. "My turn."

A jackhammer hit Derrick in the chest with a sickening crunch. The ground flew by beneath him and his left elbow dented the door as he sailed into the room behind him. When Derrick landed, several meters into the room, he immediately rolled over to alleviate the pain in his chest and back. He convulsed and coughed out a thickly congealed mass of pale red blood.

_Whoops… I think I'm in trouble._

Derrick charged up a pulse-sphere and hurled it at Solus. Solus raised a hand and swatted it away like a gnat. Derrick rolled out of the way of Solus' own pulse-sphere.

_Time to play hard-ball._

Derrick unshipped his rocket launcher and rolled onto his back. Solus paused, right in the doorway, at the sight of Derrick's toy. Derrick depressed the firing stud and Solus crossed his arms in front of his chest. The detonation was terrific and utterly deafened Derrick, but Solus was gone. Then the smoke was sucked into unseen vents and Derrick's eyes widened. At the end of the hall was a mass of rubble. Sticking out of that rubble was a ghostly white hand that was slowly clenching and unclenching.

_Well, fuck, they tried to kill his ass by blowing up an entire fucking floor. What'd'ya think was gonna happen?_

Derrick backed further into the room and fired once more from the knee. This time he aimed at the ceiling to bring down more debris. Then he fired into the doorway to collapse that.

_Time to go._


	22. Run Like Hell

_A/N: This one's a little short but I thought it suitable. Thanks for sticking with me._

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* * *

  
_

Derrick coughed up a thick clump of blood, spit it out, and grimaced as he reached into his vest to retrieve several ration bars. He wolfed them down, pausing after each one to clear his trachea of blood, and watched as his health gauge slowly refilled. When it was halfway full, Derrick stood, drawing in a full breath without pain or blood, and started for the steps leading to the exit at the far end of the other side of the room. He was gulping down water from his straw when he passed through a small hallway and into what looked like a reservoir.

The room had a high-ceiling, was circular, and the floor was grated to allow him to see the multi-colored pipes pouring thousands of gallons of water into the tank beneath him.

Derrick switched his comm.-channel quickly.

_"Attention, this is Cole. J, do you copy? Over."_

The response came quickly, _"This is J. Go ahead, Cole."_

_"I'm stuck in what looks like a reservoir. I've got a bad motherfucker up my ass and I need an exfiltration. Any suggestions? Over."_

The lonely echo of a rock tumbling from the blocked doorway caused Derrick's lip to twitch involuntarily.

_"That's the desalination plant. There's a pressure door down there. That'll get you back on track. All you've gotta do is turn off the pumps in each tank. You can't miss the pipes. That door is a foot of steel and titanium. Nothing's getting through it."_

_"Thanks, J."_

_"Good luck, Cole."_

Derrick sprinted to the big blue pipe and twisted the wheel with ease. He took the corridor closest to him at a jog and nearly collided with a chest-high tripwire. Sweat was soaking his clothing but he slowed his pace down after that. Finally, after going up a seemingly endless series of ramps and avoiding numerous tripwires, Derrick made it to the next tank. The first thing he saw was the large 'B' on the wall and then a single soldier opened fire on him.

"I don't have time for this shit!" Derrick growled and shot the soldier down.

He spun the pump-wheel with one hand and went down the next corridor. This one had even more ramps, turns, and tripwires. At one point Derrick actually found the locked pressure doors and was forced to backtrack. Derrick saw the open area with a 'C' on the wall and didn't even mind the trio of soldiers that milled about near the pipe. His hand was on a grenade when the detonation of a pack of C-4 rocked the concrete around him.

"Ohhh, shit!" Derrick whispered and threw all caution to the wind.

Derrick sprinted into the room, tossed two of the soldiers away like fluff, spun the wheel with the flick of his hand, and darted for the exit against the backdrop of multiple C-4 detonations. Bullets deflected off his back but Derrick kept on running.

"It's Solus!" One of the soldiers shouted just as Derrick turned a corner.

_Fuck, fuck, fuckfuckfuck!_

Derrick dove, slid, and ran like Hell itself wanted a piece of him. The fading screams of the soldiers were immediately replaced by C-4 explosions that came so close they sounded like one long chain. Derrick leapt over the last tripwire at the bottom of a ramp, turned the right corner, and threw himself at the pressure door-wheel. Even his enhanced muscles strained to move it but finally he got the door opened enough to squeeze through.

Then a detonation seemed like it was right behind him.

Derrick turned as he slid into the adjoining room and Solus fixed him with a baleful glare. Derrick ducked in, planted his feet, and pushed the door closed with all his might. Thankfully the pressure door closed far more easily than it had opened. Derrick's jaw dropped as he locked the wheel down and felt tiny shudders running through the solid door.

_How the fuck did he track me so fast?_ Derrick wiped his sweat-covered brow. _How am I going to beat him?_


	23. The Sewers

Derrick sat with his back to the pressure door for a long time after Solus had given it up. His health and T'langen bars had been full for some time but the despondent thoughts that rooted him to the spot were not so easily remedied. All he could seem to think about was how easily Solus had kicked his ass.

_One fucking punch_. Derrick thought dejectedly. _There's no fucking chance to beat him. Alex should have- oh, fuck, Alex!_

Derrick switched to the comm.-freq they had selected for extreme emergencies.

_This is pretty fucking extreme_. Derrick thought as he fine-tuned the signal to minimize the static.

"_This is Cole. Alex, you there? Over."_

"_Alex here. Derrick, you okay? Over."_

"_No. Just had an encounter with Solus." _Derrick paused as his next words didn't seem to want to leave his throat. _"I lost, Alex. Recommend mission abort. Over."_

The reply took so long that Derrick thought they were being jammed.

"_For some of us there is no going back."_ Alex's voice, even over the air, sounded tight with anger._ "Keep this channel clear while you run. Over and out."_

"_Goddamnit! I promised and I don't break promises. Cole, out."_

Derrick resisted the urge to hurl his comm.-gear against the nearest wall. He stood with a weary sigh and, for the first time, noticed that he was in a circular room with water-stained walls. A large, square drainage hole stood open only five meters in front of the pressure door. Derrick cautiously walked to the edge and saw that the drop was at least five meters down. He had some rope and a climbing hook but something told him the drop would be no problem.

_I've got to stop thinking so much_. Derrick thought before hopping off the edge.

The drainage shaft widened immediately and the air whistled past Derrick's ears as he plummeted. Derrick tensed and relaxed his legs in preparation for landing. A meter from impact, Derrick felt a wave of lightness pass through him. It was as though every centimeter of him had been reduced in weight by half. He took the impact with a slight flex of his knees instead of the roll he had anticipated.

Derrick found himself in a nearly pitch-black drainage tunnel. He was reaching for the Personal Light Source on his shoulder-strap when the pain of Acceleration hit his eyes. Thankfully the pain was isolated and faded as soon as it came. When his blurry eyes cleared, Derrick could actually see. Everything was in dark grays and shining whites but it was no worse than standard light amplification gear.

The drainage tunnel ended in a drop-off a meter after the broken remnants of bars. The ankle-deep gray water he stood in drained into a larger pool below him by the sound of it. He was about to jump down when a Beat grew to thunderous proportions with frightening speed.

A Stealth T'lan appeared as if by magic in the air before him. Derrick drove himself forward, like a sprinter off the block, and caught her swipe by the wrist. He drove his knee into her sternum and the momentum carried them both into the next room. Somehow Derrick lifted his leg between them and planted a boot under her chin. Using muscles he didn't know he had, and something that made his T'langen gauge go down by a hair, Derrick shifted them in midair so that the T'lan was below him. They hit the water and Derrick sank in up to his thighs. The water had cushioned the fall so that the Stealth T'lan's head had not been pulverized. With a muffled grunt Derrick heaved the T'lan's arm up to break her neck.

Derrick dropped the arm and heard another Beat approaching from his flank. He turned and saw a second Stealth T'lan charging down a drainage tunnel's center. He charged a pulse-sphere, raised his arm without turning, and let fly. The T'lan stepped onto the left wall to dodge and jumped at Derrick. Without conscious thought, Derrick released a shockwave that catapaulted the T'lan into the ceiling of the drainage tunnel. Derrick calmly stepped up into the drainage tunnel's ankle-deep flow and snapped her neck with a twist of his hands.

_I've gotten too used to all this bad sci-fi, action movie shit. I don't even notice the glow anymore._

The lethargy of exerting himself physically, as well as the overuse of his T'langen granted abilities, was alleviated by absorbing the T'langen energy spheres the corpses left behind. Derrick took a deep breath of the foul air and continued down the drainage tunnel. He followed it to the right and down a slight incline. There were diffuse lights scattered along a rail to his left. Those were the only reasons the place wasn't totally dark. Derrick was approaching a T-junction when he heard a pair of Beats coming from his left. He peeked around the corner and saw two Stealth T'lan with their backs to him.

_Perfect._

A fully-charged pulse-sphere was screaming towards the farthest and another followed before the first connected. Both T'lan wailed after Derrick's pulse-spheres had burned holes through their abdomens. Derrick absorbed their energy with a shake of his head before continuing down a right turn and up a slight rise. As soon as he entered the intersection an attack came from his right almost immediately. Unfortunately for him her battle-cry was answered by multiple sources.

_Great._

Derrick rolled beneath the T'lan's wild swing and was on his feet before she could turn. He landed a sharp jab to where her floating rib should have been and delivered a standing front-kick that propelled her four meters away. A Stealth T'lan turned a corner and charged him with her hand held low for a gutting swipe. She was closing the twenty meters faster than an Olympic athlete but that was plenty of time for Derrick to charge a pulse-sphere. A Beat rushing towards his back made the pulse-sphere disperse. Derrick twisted his torso, narrowly avoiding a stab that would have spitted him, and grabbed the offending arm with both hands. The T'lan in front of him was leaping at that moment so he didn't have many options.

Derrick swung his captive T'lan like a bat to swat the other from the air. The force of the blow rocked Derrick but produced a sickening thud. Both T'lan went limp; one hit the wall headfirst with a resounding crack while the other's blood splattered neck was connected by ribbons to the rest of her body. He dropped the corpse in time to raise his right arm to block a slash at his throat. Derrick aimed a jab at the T'lan's shoulder, at a precise point that probably wouldn't have the same effect as on a human, and the T'lan dipped to spin out of the way. Her foot connected with Derrick's shoulder hard enough to send him stumbling towards a wall. He rolled as soon as he hit it and sparks flew as another one missed a slash. Derrick rolled beneath a third as she leaped to deliver a kick. Then he was on his feet and trading blows with a fourth. He managed to land a glancing hook to her jaw before the other three joined the fray.

The next few seconds were a jumble of near-misses, dodging, and full-force strikes that were dodged in turn by his foes. Derrick, in a detached state that was comfortingly familiar, noted how brutal his fighting style really was. It was not overly acrobatic, though there was a certain amount of deadly grace to it, not like Alex's. Instead Derrick delivered blows seemingly devoted to the utter obliteration of his foes.

Then everyone was close enough for a shockwave.

Two of his foes were killed instantly, already severely injured from Derrick's successful strikes, while the other two were just seriously fucked up. Derrick took care of the last one quickly and then took a minute to pant. Blood dripped from a gash on his forehead and his left arm had stripes running from his shoulder to his elbow.

_I'm going to need new clothes again. Shit._

Derrick absorbed some health energy, as well as one of T'langen, and continued on his journey. This section was full of barred dead-ends except for a drainage tunnel partially blocked by huge pipes at eye level. Derrick crouched under them and followed the tunnel to the left. The two T'lan waiting in the tunnel seemed almost frightened by his appearance. Derrick charged at them with a snarl and fired a pulse-sphere on the run. It burned through the neck of the farthest, who still managed to wail as she died, and then Derrick delivered a leaping uppercut to the remaining. Her head actually lodged in the ceiling and her body convulsed several times before stilling.

Derrick moved on, neither of them dropped energy, and came to a T-junction. The path to the left was barred but a lone soldier's body was slumped over against the wall. Derrick turned to the right at the sounds of splashing water and a fading Beat.

_Did one really just run from me?_ Derrick knelt and searched the body. _And how the fuck did you end up down here by yourself?_

Derrick cast the mysteries from his mind as he ascended the rise opposite the corpse. At the top, three Beats waited on his left and a bunch of Bulbs on his right.

_I guess she went for reinforcements. Smart._

They attacked as one and were repelled by a shockwave in the same manner. Each hit the pipe blocking the tunnel hard enough to leave a dent. Pulse-spheres to the back of the head finished them off. A single shot from his sidearm set off a chain reaction that destroyed the approaching Bulbs. Thankfully one of the T'lan left a T'langen-sphere behind. Derrick ducked under the pipes and stopped at the T-junction. There were two Beats to either side.

_Which one first? Hmm, eenie, menie, minie, mo…_

Before Derrick could finish they both came charging around their corners. Another combination of shockwave and pulse-sphere handled that problem. None of them dropped a T'langen sphere though and his gauge was in the red.

_Maybe I should be more frugal in the future._

Derrick continued down the right turn, the left was a dead-end, and yet another Stealth T'lan charged at him. Experience had taught him that this particular breed of T'lan did not deal well with opponents that took the offensive. Derrick delivered a running front-kick, leapt, and came down with a boot to her head. This one did leave a T'langen-sphere behind and Derrick gladly absorbed it.

Rungs in the left wall at the end of the tunnel led up to his exit. It was full of Bulbs that were cleared by a short burst from his MP5. Despite his devastation of the Stealth T'lan, and him leaving Solus far behind, Derrick could not forget the sensation of the single blow that had nearly killed him. Then he remembered his promise to Alex and the ghost-pain vanished.

_I'm coming, Alex._


	24. Swatting A Fly

Derrick emerged into what looked like a warehouse's break room. He replaced the manhole cover and took a breath of relatively fresh air. Of course his clothes still reeked but there were two stands of lockers ahead and to the right. To his left was a sturdy chain-link fence. He was confident he could kick in the gate leading down to the warehouse floor. A radio on a barrel was babbling in Japanese and Derrick, for a moment, thought he could make out some of the words. Derrick walked up to the lockers, passing a table on his right, and stopped as he caught the tiny red blink of a C4 pack hooked up to a tripwire. It was probably meant for T'lan, to alert anyone that they were coming out of the sewers, because it was incredibly sloppy to leave them so visible.

_Oh, don't tell me_. Derrick eyed the three meter tall fence. _Fuck._

The top of the fence, probably the gate as well, was rigged with enough C4 to kill a blue whale. The stairs leading up to the exit were also rigged. There was a clear space on the railing of the landing though.01

_Thank God for small favors_. Derrick thought with a tiny smirk.

Providence also provided Derrick with a change of pants and a clean shirt. They were dark shades of gray that Derrick didn't particularly like, but they would do. Without further delay, Derrick ducked under the tripwire attached to the last locker on his left, and sprang onto the outside of the rail. Derrick vaulted over, opened the door, and just managed to hop over a double-set of ankle high tripwires. The near brush with death passed from his mind quickly as Derrick breathed in his first taste of truly fresh air in hours. It even had a slight tang of salt.

_How the fuck did I get back outside?_ A train whistle blew and was followed by the sound of it moving along unseen tracks. _Well, it's not like I know how many feet above or below sea level I was or am. Oh well._

Derrick turned right, around a corner, and stood for a moment to take in the sun as it slowly set. Then the moment was past and he jumped over the tripwires at the bottom of a small slope. The next half hour of Derrick's life was spent, once again, navigating a deathtrap of high explosives. At times he felt like a circus contortionist.

_Shit_. Derrick thought as he was forced to hop onto a metal crate so that he could jump over a column of trip-wires. _Alex would eat this run for breakfast._

Finally Derrick was in the clear. He squeezed between two freight containers, down a ramp, and onto another container. To the right was a helipad that looked like it led back to the warehouse he had just come from.

_Not like I have much choice_. Derrick jumped down into the courtyard and immediately regretted his decision.

"_This is Devil-Eight-Zero. We've located Cole."_

From the far side of the freight yard rose the menacing silhouette of the military attack helicopter that was the bane of Derrick's existence.

"_We won't let him get away this time!"_

With a grim smile, Derrick unshipped his rocket launcher and set it to anti-air. Derrick sighted through the side-scope, waited until the reticule turned green, and fired. The pilot had fired the 'chopper's guns and a few chipped at Derrick's shield before the pilot veered away from Derrick's rocket. The homing feature kicked in and the rocket altered its heading just enough to strike the 'chopper's heavily armored belly.

"_Jeezus! He's got anti-air!"_

Derrick raced for the cover of freight containers in one corner of the yard. The attack helicopter came roaring over his head and Derrick let loose with two rockets this time. His jaw dropped as the 'chopper lowered its speed and altitude, as well as changing its heading, with impossible speed. It rotated to face Derrick and let loose with its guns. Derrick dove to his left, behind another container, and the chopper circled cautiously to gain a better vantage point.

Unfortunately for the 'chopper, Derrick had sneaked along the courtyard wall so that he was offered another perfect shot at their scorched underbelly. He fired the last two rockets in that magazine and whooped as the 'chopper took wobbly evasive action. Thick black smoke billowed from its interior as Derrick reloaded with his only spare magazine. The 'chopper returned and hovered near the opposite corner of the yard.

_Too easy_. Derrick thought as he stepped from his cover to fire another pair of rockets.

A quartet of answering rockets came from his nemesis.

_Oh. Forgot about those_. Derrick's thoughts seemed to crawl as his body raced to dive clear.

Light, heat, and sound enveloped Derrick's world as the rockets impacted around him. His shield energy bled to nothing and the shockwave blew both of his eardrums. Derrick's health bar dropped to a quarter and a shrill beeping started. Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion and, except for the beeping, every sound obscured by thick walls.

_Guess they got permission to use the big bangers_. Derrick thought numbly as he crawled through the smoke to a crawlspace beneath an overseer's office. And I just got these new clothes.

"_Target down!"_ The pilot cheered. _"Confirming target pacification."_

Derrick rolled over and chewed partially melted ration bar after ration bar until they were all gone. He drained his water also but his health bar was still a quarter drained and his T'langen bar was completely drained. Then, like a gift from heaven, his hand hit a can of juice. Derrick downed it and the caloric rush supercharged him. His T'langen gauge was almost entirely refilled by that one can. Derrick stood in a crouch as the helicopter made a number of low passes over the office. A plan, a crazy-ass plan, came to Derrick during one such pass.

_Oh, fuck it._

Derrick wormed his way through the stairs on the shadowed side of the portable office. He leapt, grabbed the edge, and pulled himself onto the roof. The helicopter came back, the smoke thicker than ever as it passed within four meters of the roof, and Derrick jumped with all his might. His hands latched onto the foot-rail and he hauled himself up into the open compartment. The smoke was even thicker inside and two soldiers with fire extinguishers turned at his entrance. There were at least several more in the large troop compartment but the smoke obscured Derrick's vision. The closest with a fire extinguisher reached for his sidearm and a thrust-kick propelled him out of the other side of the helicopter.

"He's here!" The other soldier yelled as he turned to reach for an assault rifle.

Derrick unclipped a trio of grenades, pulled their pins, and rolled them in the general direction of the cockpit. Someone fired what sounded like a light squad assault weapon and the rounds started ricocheting around the cockpit as Derrick leapt backwards out of the 'chopper. He turned toward the ground and his eyes widened as he realized the pilot had ascended to at least a hundred meters.

_This is going to hurt._


	25. Reunification

"_Fuck!_"

At least that was what Derrick tried to scream as he was jolted back to consciousness by agonizing pain in his legs. The thick smoke clogging the air turned his expletive into a fit of convulsive coughing which didn't help the pain in his back.

_I'm never doing that again_. Derrick thought as he waited for the coughing to subside.

Once it did, Derrick twisted his head to check for injuries and survey his surroundings. Somehow he had ended up digging a crater in an armored panel of the attack helicopter. The rest of the vehicle was scattered around him in a thousand pieces.

_Well, at least something broke my fall._

Several sharp twinges, accompanied by distressing cracking sounds, made Derrick raise his head to get a look at his legs. The sight of them was enough to make bile rise in his throat. Both of his legs were shattered in multiple places, each bent at impossible angles, and his charred pants were liberally splashed with his own blood. The source of both the pain and cracking was something extraordinary. His legs were straightening themselves out and knitting themselves centimeter by centimeter.

Derrick laid his head back, closed his eyes, and waited for the miracles to be complete. He managed to doze off, which was astonishing in itself, amid the burning wreckage and excruciating pain. When he awoke again, this time much more comfortably, his health gauge was at maximum. His T'langen gauge was empty though and it didn't look like it would refill on its own.

Derrick stood and was dismayed to find that all of his weapons had been torn away by the force of the explosion. The only weapons he had now were the six-inch knife in a shoulder sheath and his fists. He clenched a fist; its glow only slightly diminished by his recent exertions, and chuckled weakly.

_If I can avoid getting shot then they're all I really need._

A part of the rotor assembly had blown a gaping hole in the loading doors of the warehouse. Derrick entered the breech and laughed as he heard the rapid-fire radio announcer. He looked longing at the lockers behind the C4-rigged fence. With a shrug Derrick headed for the door on the opposite side of the warehouse. The door had a solid red light above it and the word 'danger' above that.

_How inviting_. Derrick shook his head as he weaved between forklifts.

The door opened up into a tiny darkened stairwell, which in turn led to a door to a maintenance room. Derrick headed towards the exit and paused as he became aware of a strange whirring noise. He eased the door open and stepped into a big ass vent shaft. The pull of air was so strong that he could feel it pulling him towards the colossal fan that was making the noise. Derrick walked down the steps leading to the solid ledge that circled the grate-covered fan. He noticed an access hatch had been left open a few meters to his right.

_Note to self: Don't fall into that_. Right behind that thought came another. _Well, how the fuck am I going to get out of here?_

That was when he spotted a control panel, complete with digital timer readout, on the opposite wall. It seemed simple enough to operate so Derrick pushed the lone, green button. The red numbers pulsed and changed to twenty-five seconds. The noise of the fan's rotation stated to fade and Derrick circled to the open hatch.

"_Oh, fuck me." _Derrick snarled as he saw that the drop was probably five meters.

It also looked like there was another fan down there. Derrick jumped between the fan blades, rolled in the direction of the next hatch, and let out an agonized grunt as he felt a muscle tear in his left leg. He pushed through the pain and dropped through the next hatch. This time he didn't hurt himself on the landing but Derrick gave an exasperated sigh as he saw yet another fan two levels below this one. The fan directly below him was still spinning slowly enough that he could brace his good leg against it to stop it. By the time he got to the third fan, the incessant beep of the readout was literally becoming terminal.

Derrick dropped down into the last grate and growled at the horizontal vent duct he was staring at. The fan blades looked like they hadn't moved in awhile but Derrick wasn't taking any chances. There were two fans, one at the beginning and another at the end of the ten-meter long duct, and Derrick was through in seconds. The next room was large and had smaller ventilation fans and ducts along the other three walls. There was rubble blocking the door but a conveniently open maintenance duct on the floor provided a means of escape.

Derrick quickly descended to floor level and crawled into the duct. A few turns brought him to a ventilation junction where he was forced onto his belly to enter the next duct. He was crawling over a grate that let him see into disgustingly familiar gray corridor and then an wonderfully familiar figure dashed by.

"Al-!" Derrick's cry was lost as Alex turned and fired her sidearm while skipping backwards.

Alex's shots were answered by several bursts of SMG fire.

"Don't let her get away!" A soldier shouted as Alex disappeared around a corner.

"Don't worry! I got her!" Another said as a squad of four ran under Derrick.

Derrick pushed against the grate but it wouldn't budge. He Focused on the effort but his hands barely brightened above the feeble glow they were capable of now.

"Fuck." He muttered as he began to furiously crawl through the duct.

Derrick came to a junction and the next duct was high enough for him to crawl on his hands and knees. Derrick heard voices when he came to the next junction.

"Damn! She's locked the door!"

"Get outta the way! I'll blow it!"

Derrick hurried to the next junction and saw that it led to yet another duct. There was a light at the end of this tunnel though. Unfortunately it was barred but hiding behind a cargo crate was Alex. She had her sight on Derrick in a flash.

"…Derrick?"

"No, it's Santa Clause!" Derrick said with a grin as he started pushing at the bars.

"Hurry! I need help here!"

"Well, what the fuck do you think-!" Derrick started kicking the persistent barrier. "Fuck! Are they made out of titanium?"

"Go around!" Alex told him, her hand clamped to her side. "I got hit bad. I don't know if I can take them."

"Alright. Stay frosty. I'll be right back."

Derrick slid through the next set of ducts like a greased eel. The damned system did end right outside whatever room Alex was holed up in and he found himself looking down at the fucks that were trying to kill Alex. They looked like they were affixing a ton of C4 to the door.

"Get back!"

_Maybe they'll blow this fucking grate off._

"Fire in the hole!"

Derrick backed down the duct and waited with the coiled tenseness of a rattlesnake. The C4 blew and the explosion knocked the grate right off its hinges. Derrick silently made his way to the edge of the opening and waited. He drew his knife from its sheathe as the first cautiously posted beside the door. Three of the soldiers formed up for an aggressive sweep-and-clear while the fourth was probably out of Derrick's sight watching their backs.

Once the third soldier had begun to enter the room, Derrick hopped down facing the fourth. Derrick flicked his knife underhand and caught the trooper in the throat. The soldier's hands immediately went to the already blood-slicked handle of the blade lodged in his neck. Derrick turned and entered only a few seconds behind the third man as the soldier made to join his squad mates as they fired at Alex's diving form. Derrick wrapped his arm around the man's neck and collapsed his windpipe with a powerful squeeze. He grabbed the dying soldier's MP5 and fired twin bursts at the knees of Alex's assailants. They went down with screams of surprise and rage. Derrick shut them up with quick bursts to their heads.

"Are you alright?" Alex had the nerve to ask as she limped up to him.

Derrick bit back his customary, acidic reply and simply dropped his enemy's body. He went to her, grabbed her by the hips, and hoisted her onto the nearest table.

"What are you-?"

"Take off your armor." Derrick told her as he removed the first-aid kit from the nearest soldier's pack. "From the way we both seem to heal, I assume the bullet's still in there."

"Yes," came the quiet reply as Alex removed her upper tac-gear.

Derrick pulled up a chair and pulled out what he thought he would need.

_It must be lodged in good, otherwise it would get pushed out when she healed._

"Why the fuck did you ask if I was alright?" Derrick asked as he injected a local anesthetic that would numb her entire torso.

Alex stifled a laugh, "You look like shit."

Derrick did laugh as he prepped the pale flesh around the entry wound with iodine-based antiseptic.

"When you're right-," Derrick sliced the entry wound open wide with a scalpel, "-you're right."

The next minute was spent sweating and digging for the round that had twisted itself into Alex's innards. Finally, using a pair of wickedly long forceps, Derrick had it out and by the time he had wiped Alex's abdomen free of blood the wound was little more than a tiny, crusted over flesh wound. Derrick stood and for the first time realized that Alex was completely uncovered from the waist up. Her breasts were larger than Derrick had thought, at least a C, and decidedly more fleshy. Surprisingly, given her coloration, her nipples were a rosy hue and her areolas were quite tiny. For a moment all he could do, despite the massive amounts of respect and gratitude he had for her, was to stare lasciviously.

"Thanks," Alex said, pulling him close to throw her arms around him, before whispering, "I'm glad you're okay."

Derrick could not remember being a touchy-feely person, but he knew he wasn't supposed to develop a massive erection when a member of his squad hugged him. It shouldn't have mattered if the person was a beautiful, half-naked woman. He especially wasn't supposed to get the terribly powerful urge to tear all his clothes off and fuck said member of his squad on a table in the middle of a battlefield. So, contrary to the thoughts he had been having all day, Derrick pulled away gruffly.

"I'd glad you're okay, too." Derrick turned away, hoping she hadn't noticed his tent. "Enough with the mushy stuff. We need to get the fuck outta here."

Alex was quiet for a moment before saying, "Yeah."

Derrick stripped the soldier he'd chocked to death of his weapons and gear. Thankfully the gear was one-size-fits-all and reasonably comfortable.

"We're close to our objective. "Alex said as Derrick changed.

_Look at all those scars_. Derrick thought as he looked at the thick tracks running down his torso and legs. _I wonder what my face looks like._

Derrick ate five ration bars and drank a can of juice to get himself fully up to snuff.

"The resistance is only going to get worse from here."

"Yeah, but we won't have to worry about that fucking 'chopper."

"What do you mean?"

Derrick grinned, "I didn't get fucked up fighting the Tooth Fairy!"

Alex laughed and smacked his chest with the back of her hand, "That's _exactly _what I thought, too. Maybe you should take the lead. Seeing as you're such a badass now."

"Glad to see someone recognizes greatness."

The team was back together again and Derrick felt like the world was theirs.

_Now if only I can find a place we can fuck._


	26. To See The Wizard

Derrick took the lead down a gray corridor similar to those in the desalination plant. At the end of it there was a rail with a broken ladder on the right. He eyed the three meter drop before stepping off the edge. Alex did a forward somersault over the rail and touched down beside him as light as a feather.

"Show-off." Derrick muttered and Alex smirked.

The door at the end of this corridor led to a maintenance room with a high ceiling, but there was little of interest there. The exit took them up a long stairwell that ended in a partially open hatch. They stepped into a rail-tunnel with a station only fifty meters to the left. It looked like there was a rail-car waiting for them. Of course the car was swarming with T'lan Bugs.

"I'll follow your lead." Alex said from his left.

"Hold position." Derrick jogged onto the platform and summoned his new shockwave ability.

Derrick felt the power build in his chest and, when the Bugs swarmed from all directions, he released it. Tiny explosions caused his ears to ring and he was astonished that the rail-car actually rocked. The control terminal cracked and sparks flew as the barrier blocking the tunnel rose.

_I'd better not do that around volatile chemicals._

"All aboard!" Derrick called with a grin.

Alex chuckled as they boarded the rail-car. Derrick stood at the front after activating the car and Alex stood at his side.

_Is it my imagination or is she standing closer than necessary?_

Any follow-up thoughts were dissipated by the tell-tale glow of T'lan Bulbs.

"Bulbs!" Derrick barked and snapped his SMG to his shoulder.

"Bulbs." Alex murmured. "I like that."

Derrick and Alex took care of successive waves of Bulbs with no problem. Then the rail-car came to a steep drop, more like a rollercoaster than a train track, and Derrick slammed his next magazine in with more force than necessary.

"Grab onto something!"

Derrick grabbed the edge of the control panel, his fingers gouging handholds, and Alex wrapped an arm around his waist. He threw a glance at her but she just kept on firing at the Bulbs hovering over the drop. It was harrowing holding on while firing at the Bulbs hovering all over the place. Derrick was sweating bullets while Alex looked as cool as a cucumber. Finally the track leveled out and they were breezing down a relatively thin corridor that was clear of T'lan. The corridor was dark and lined with scaffolding.

The rail-car came to an abrupt halt when it hit a bumper-stop on what looked like a freight elevator designed to take it to a lower level. It was dark though, both the overhead lights as well as the lift controls, and there was a lit control room to the right. Standing in that room was a pair of soldiers who were just coming through the door to investigate. Derrick unclipped one of his newly acquired grenades, pulled the pin, and lobbed it into the doorway.

"Grenade!" One yelled and leapt forward.

Both escaped the blast radius, one inside and one outside the room, but neither escaped Alex or Derrick. A quick examination of the bank of controls beneath the bay window revealed the power switches. Derrick motioned for Alex to take the furthest one while he took the one nearer the door.

"Now!"

They pushed the switches up and a second later the lights came on. An audible hum also filled their ears as the lift mechanisms came to life. They went back around to the lift's control panel, there was a two meter wide space around the rail-car, and Derrick hit the switch. The lift descended diagonally along its tracks. Alex sat on the rail-car's step.

"I guess we should rest while we can."

"How long is the ride?" Derrick asked, leaning against the chain-linked railing.

Alex shrugged, "Ten minutes?"

Derrick grinned, "There's a lot of things that can happen in ten minutes."

Suddenly Alex was there, mouth only a few centimeters from his mouth, and her eyes burned into his.

"Yeah, like what?"

_Yeah, like what?_ Derrick thought numbly, but his body had a far different reaction.

Derrick's hands went to her waist and lifted her into the air. Alex's legs wrapped around his waist so fast they seemed to just be there. He pushed her into the side of the rail-car, his hands sliding down to the underside of her legs very close to her ass, and pressed his lips gently to hers. Alex returned his gentle probe with a fierceness that shocked him a little. Derrick followed her lead though and soon they were covering each others necks in bite marks. Alex started grinding her pelvis into Derrick's crotch and making throaty growling noises. Derrick was reduced to short grunts as he fell into a rhythm with Alex. They continued like that for some time before sense prevailed over lust.

"Stop." Derrick said, pulling away, his voice husky. "We need to stop."

"Why?" Alex's voice had dropped to a whisper as she thrust her hips, "You don't want to?"

"Oh, I do, but we'll hit bottom if I do what I've been dying to do for hours."

Alex chuckled, "You're right. One last kiss?"

"What the fuck is that!?" Derrick gasped at what an opening in the shaft wall had revealed.

It looked like a colossal version of the T'lan wall they had seen so long ago.

"C'mere." Alex said and roughly kissed Derrick for several seconds before disengaging. "This is the center of it all." She said as she resumed her seat with a seductive lick of her lips, "This is the real thing."

Derrick stood in front of her and fought the urge to rip her clothes off.

"We can do it."

Alex looked up at him, "Yeah, I know we can."

The rest of the ride was spent in companionable silence. Then they hit bottom and all hell broke loose.

"Contact!" Derrick shouted before the first round pinged off his shield. "Split up!"

"See you in a bit!" Alex shouted and jumped over the two meter high fence on their right.

Derrick went forward into a large warehouse. There were soldiers everywhere, firing at him, but Derrick was like a force of nature as he went through them. He scoured the immediate area, as well as the raised area to the right, but it seemed they had all been waiting for them.

"Good job." Alex said, stepping to Derrick's side as he scrounged for ammo.

"Not done yet." Derrick said and jogged back to the rail-car.

Derrick activated the car and hopped out.

"Come on." Derrick led Alex up onto the raised area on the right.

The pair kept pace with the rail-car, albeit ten meters behind it, and followed it around a turn to the right. SMG fire made the rail-car emit a cascade of sparks as it barreled to the end of the line. Someone fired a rocket, hit the rail-car, and screamed shrilly as it smashed into him after coming through the explosion. A lone soldier fired from the raised area and Derrick motioned Alex forward. Alex drew her combat knife and darted forward with unnatural stealth. She slit the soldier's throat and laid him gently on the ground. After that it was a straightforward matter of hunting the remaining soldiers among the cargo containers and warehouse equipment. During that search, Derrick spied a battery package like the one they had used to get through the T'lan energy field.

_I'd better grab it_. Derrick through after they'd finished off the last soldier. _Fuck knows I don't wanna walk back for it if I need it._

Derrick and Alex regrouped and headed out a door opposite the raised area. It led to a small control room with another push-button door at the other end. Derrick went through first and into a partitioned warehouse. He squeezed his way between cargo crates and immediately came under fire. A pair of soldiers stood on a raised area several meters in front of Derrick. He raised his MP5 and two long bursts took care of that problem. Derrick ascended the stairs and a barrage of gunfire dropped his shield close to the red zone. He unclipped a grenade and lobbed it at the soldiers at the far end of the walkway. He and Alex charged as the five soldiers scattered. Liberal use of their sidearms silenced the men forever.

Derrick whistled as he reloaded his weapons and looked at the hatch blocking their way. It was easily four meters high and looked thick as hell.

"You haven't seen anything yet." Alex hit a switch and yellow warning lights flashed in time with a klaxon.

The vault doors opened, and a second hatch with the Science Center logo slid up into the wall, to reveal a titanic wall at the end of a two hundred meter long bridge. A T'lan barrier glowed malevolently at the end of the bridge. It must have been a hundred meters high.

"This is the entrance to Site Zero." Alex next words came out in a whisper. "I… I've seen this before but I can't remember."

Derrick put a hand on Alex's shoulder.

"I know that feeling. C'mon."

Alex nodded and they continued onto the bridge. Derrick looked around in awe as they walked. A clammy fog, billowing up from unknown depths, partially obscured his view but Derrick could see that the T'lan barrier had been dug in solid rock.

_How old is it to be this fucking deep?_

It looked like a long way up to the surface. Spotlights illuminated the wall and to Derrick's right, high above them, he could barely make out the opening in the elevator shaft where he had caught a glimpse of this cavernous place. They stopped at the laser device that would open the barrier. Derrick inserted the battery and hit the activation button. Just like before the laser fired, hit the node, and the energy barrier began to fade.

"The wall!" Alex exclaimed. "The wall's disappearing like the one in the lab!"

Derrick laughed and shook his head.

Alex glared at him, "Let's go!"

Past the barrier was a very long slope that made Derrick sigh just looking at it. Alex began ascending like a mountain goat and Derrick had no choice but to follow. There were light fixtures, of the crystalline décor favored by the T'lan, on the walls and ceiling. Of course the lights didn't dispel the fog that filled the corridor but Derrick could see a strange glow at the top of the hill. Once they reached the top Derrick's legs didn't hurt nearly as much as he had thought they would. No, what really made him want to curse a blue streak was the barrier of blue energy crackling before him.

"How do we get through?" Derrick asked, and glared when Alex laughed, "What?"

"Blue means you can pass through."

"You've gotta be shitting me!"

"C'mon, it won't hurt." Alex held her hand out. "I promise."

Derrick took her hand and Alex sprinted for the barrier with a laugh.

_We're off the see the wizard,_ was Derrick's last thought before blue light filled his world.


	27. Site Zero

The light faded almost as quickly as it had blinded Derrick and he stumbled as the floor took on a slight downgrade. Derrick blinked and found himself in a small chamber that ended in another portal.

"Site Zero's kind of small, isn't it?" Derrick couldn't resist the jab.

"Very funny." Alex shook her head as she pulled him into the next portal.

_Funny how she still hasn't let go of my hand._

When the blue light cleared, this time both of their reactions were very different. Derrick squinted against the intense bright light emanating from high above as he and Alex walked to the edge of the ramp leading to the entrance.

"The sky!" Alex shouted, her voice filled with wonder. "Look! You can see the sun!"

"How the fuck is that possible? I thought we were underground?"

"I don't know and I can't believe it." Alex put her hands on her hips and examined the countryside.

_And fuck me if it isn't countryside._

Derrick and Alex were staring at a wide canyon that stretched for at least a kilometer. Strange trees, faintly resembling palm trees, were lightly interspersed throughout the short grass coating the canyon floor. Equally strange were the motes of light floating through the air.

"Looks like a long way to walk." Alex said, throwing her hands up in exasperation.

"Well, let's get started then."

Together they walked onto the canyon floor. Derrick glanced behind them and noted that the entrance was stuck in a cliff face. Upon facing forward, a strange structure caught his attention. It was tent-shaped, seemingly made of T'lan chitin, and three meters high.

"I wonder what it's for?" Derrick turned to Alex.

Alex answered with an eloquent shrug and they continued walking. The observation tower of some kind of outpost to their left attracted their attention next. Better yet, there was actually someone standing at the platform on top of the structure. It looked like a researcher.

"Hey, up there!" Derrick called and the man looked down at them.

"Come on up!" He yelled back.

Derrick and Alex quickly ascended the ladder to the top of the tower. It was at least six meters high and the tree next to it still loomed overhead. The leaves really didn't look like palm leaves but the trunk was an exact match. Before Derrick could get over his curiosity or Alex joined them, the brown-skinned researcher began to speak.

"Look." He pointed at the sun which made his bald head shine beautifully. "That's Nexus, but nobody can get close to it anymore." He fixed Derrick with sorrowful brown eyes and shook his head. "We can't stop it. It's all over!"

"Hey." Derrick laid his hand on the man's shoulders. "Dr. Ogawa sent us to stop it. So relax."

The man instantly perked up, "Dr. Ogawa sent you! Is a rescue team coming?"

Derrick and Alex shared a look.

"I'm sure Dr. Ogawa and Jameson are working on it." Alex reassured him.

"If you see any soldiers then take cover until they identify themselves. We've got to get going." Derrick shook his hand. "Good luck."

"Thanks." The man said with a wan smile.

Further into the campsite, which was composed of storage containers surrounding two canopy pavilions shading banks of computers, they discovered another researcher typing away on a computer. He turned at their approach. The researcher was a brown-haired man whose clothing was liberally covered in stains.

"Hey, you. Are you trying to get to Nexus?" Derrick nodded in surprise at the guess. "If you are, you should head first for the elevator that goes up to the central area of Site Zero." The man pointed to Derrick's left, over the cliff face, towards a blue tower. "See that tower over there? That's it. I don't know about you, but we're getting the hell out of here."

Derrick thanked the man, repeated his warnings, and resumed searching the camp. They found a map near the researcher and studied it to find that their route went in a very round-about fashion.

_There's a sea?_ Derrick wondered as he studied the map. _But if the light's Nexus then we _must_ be underground._

Even stranger was the picture of a skeleton with an arrow that had 'giant' inscribed under it which ended at the turn of a canyon..

"Take a look at this." Alex handed him a clipboard.

**Research Report #19**

**Based on the results of our geotomography surveys, we've determined that Site Zero is not a natural underground cavern.**

_So we _are _underground._

**It appears to be something like a gigantic casket. In other words, it's a manufacturing container or vessel of some sort that has been buried underground. The vessel is compartmentalized into three sections. One of the sections is filled with animal and plant life. The life forms in that area have developed a unique, self-contained ecosystem that has not been affected by the external environment of our world. There are also rivers and oceans that circulate through Site Zero. Not a drop of water from those places leaves the area. We've decided to call this artificial, self-contained environment 'Sanctuary'.**

They discovered another research report on a table under the pavilion behind the researcher.

**Research Report #22**

**Site Zero is divided into three areas. 'Sanctuary', 'Silo', and 'Core'. We discovered a central computer in the Core called 'Nexus'. We're moving forward with our research on it. Someone leaked information that this was an archaeological dig and they were right, more or less.**

The real find, one that nearly made Derrick stain his pants, was a jeep parked a little way down the canyon.

"Hey, I think we can use that jeep." Alex said, stepping up to the vehicle.

It looked like a modern version of a WWII model. The dash was full of sophisticated electronics.

"Can you drive it?" Alex asked, climbing in before he could say no.

Derrick was about to snap at her when he realized that he could. He climbed in and turned the key conveniently left in the ignition.

"There was another camp on the other side of the canyon." Alex said as he pulled out. "Let's check it out."

This camp was only a single pavilion and in the center they found three bodies swarming with T'lan Bugs. Derrick took care of them with a sustained burst that ate half a magazine. He reloaded while Alex scouted the area. She returned with a clipboard in hand.

**Research Report #27**

**The red shield cannot be penetrated. We made attempts to breech the shield with the help of the military but failed. We have abandoned the idea of passing through the shield for the time being. The green shield on the other hand only blocks light and gases.**

_Well, why'd that shield look blue? Fuck, maybe I'm color-blind._

**It seems to maintain Site Zero's ecosystem. We can pass freely through it.**

Derrick and Alex boarded the jeep quickly.

"Let's hurry." Alex said, and Derrick buckled himself in tight.

"Okay." Derrick said with a savage grin and floored the accelerator.

The tires spun, chewed up the grass, and the jeep shot forward. They topped a slight rise at sixty kilometers per hour and got a healthy amount of air. Alex whooped after they hit the ground.

_I knew she was my kind of woman._

Derrick power-slid around the first corner of the canyon and Alex stated quite calmly, "At least the weather's not too bad."

Derrick's only response was a rumbling laugh. This section of the canyon was narrow and strewn with boulders as large as the jeep. Derrick slalomed through them like an Olympic skier.

"_Romeo-one-one-five to all units! Find and detain Stefania Wojinski. Subject may be inside Site Zero… over."_

"Stefania Wonjinski…" Alex spoke so softly that Derrick almost missed it, "They're talking about that scientist from Terminus Four! Why would they be looking for her!?"

Derrick sliced around another corner hard enough to make the restraint dig into his hips.

"That must have been whatever she was planning! Shit, I'm just glad they're not up our asses!"

"Yeah, but stay sharp! Anything can happen!"

Derrick chuckled, "No shit!"

They came to a dead-end with a blue-green shield in the canyon wall. Derrick slowed down to twenty kph as they approached it.

"Not a bad day for a Sunday drive, huh?" Alex asked with a grin.

Derrick shook his head, "You're nuts."

"You love it!"

_I think I really do._

Derrick drove through the T'lan equivalent of an airlock and into another relatively narrow canyon. They drove around a loose circle of rocks, at the center of which lay a pair of dead soldiers; and before Derrick could even think about what had killed them, a T'lan laser scorched the air above his head.

"Floor it!" Alex shouted, prying up the windshield for the meager protection it offered.

Derrick splashed into a shallow stream dead-ahead and slewed to the right to avoid the canyon wall. Ten meters in front of him, an Assault T'lan was on his knees lining up a shot. Derrick kicked the jeep into high gear and mowed the bastard down.

"Left!"

Derrick obeyed Alex's directions and plowed up the stream bank. They entered an even narrower, shadowed canyon. It twisted so much Derrick could barely keep their speed up to sixty kph.

"Can't this thing go any faster?" Alex teased.

"You wanna drive?" Derrick offered in as sincere a voice as he could manage.

When the pocket canyon did widen, it was only because of a deep gorge on their left. Derrick had to go all the way to the end of the canyon, do a 180-spin, and then avoid innumerable boulders while dodging T'lan lasers.

"I'm _really_ having fun now!"

Alex laughed and whooped as they momentarily went airborne. Derrick drove into another pocket canyon filled with T'lan and boulders. Even T'lan couldn't handle a jeep coming at them at nearly a hundred kph and they bounced most satisfactorily off the bumper. At the end of the pocket canyon was a pile of rocks too large for the jeep to go through.

"We're going to have to ditch it!" Derrick shouted and slewed the jeep to a stop.

The two enhanced humans pounded around the blockage and stopped as they came up against a trio of soldiers armed with anti-T'lan lasers.

"Stand down!" The squad leader shouted. "The L.T. wants to see you, Cole."

Alex looked at Derrick questioningly.

"I'll explain later."

The open area that led to a cliff face looked like a war zone. A large, isolated fire burned to their left while smaller ones burned at the cliff's edge. Several bodies lay in a neat row to their right. The distinct figure of First Lieutenant Gianni waited in the midst of his remaining squad as they went about securing the area.

"Cole!" Gianni called as they walked up with the corporal.

"Gianni." Derrick shook his hand as the corporal returned to his post.

"Thanks for saving our sorry asses out there, pal." Before Derrick could ask, Gianni continued. "They were just about to overrun our position when you came tearin' in. We were able to pick 'em off thanks to you."

"Shit, I was just trying not to die."

The two men shared a quiet chuckle.

"So uh…" Gianni glanced at Alex with a small smile. "Who's the chick?"

"She's my partner." Derrick replied without hesitation.

_She'd probably kick my ass if I called her my woman. Which I hope she'll be soon._

Alex gently pounded his shoulder and nodded in agreement.

"I see." Gianni paused as he hefted his anti-T'lan laser over his shoulder. "I got something to tell ya, pal. Nexus is moving millions, maybe fucking _trillions_, of T'lan warriors onto rockets."

"Are you fucking kidding?" Alex shouted before she promptly turned and thrust-kicked the top off a meter high column of stone.

Gianni's jaw dropped but he kept talking, "It's gonna send them all over the world."

"If that happens-," Alex's voice hitched, "-it's the end of our world."

"That's right and that's why we're gonna nuke this shit-hole before that happens." Gianni clenched his free hand into a fist as he spoke.

"What?" Alex started, but Derrick cut her off.

"What about the city?" Derrick asked, his own anger throbbing in his veins.

"It's been evacuated completely for about an hour now." Gianni grinned. "And they'll only do it after we get the research data from the lab, of course."

"Nuke it? You can't do that…" This time Gianni cut Alex's tirade off.

"Hey, lady, I ain't done talkin', okay?" Alex turned away with a disgusted toss of her hand. "Some crazy bitch… uh, no offense intended, sweetcakes-," Alex just flipped the First Lieutenant off, "-ran off with the research data we need. So we can't nuke this place until we find her ass."

Derrick and Alex shared a look.

"It's Stefania!" Alex said at Derrick's nod.

"I don't know her name, but she bought us a little time. If you don't want to see this place glowing for the next twenty-four thousand years, we'd better fucking stop those goddamned T'lan rockets ourselves."

"You sure?' Alex asked quietly.

"Yeah, we can do it." Gianni reassure her. "You see that tower? The T'lan silos are beyond that. The guys at the research center set up the countermeasures device there. If we can operate that device, then we can jam the commands coming out of Nexus." Gianni clapped a hand onto Derrick's shoulder. "Derrick, you've gotta help us."

"Well, I _am_ going that way."

Gianni chuckled, "Those silos are smack-fucking-dab in the middle of enemy territory. We won't be able to reach them ourselves. Our teams can rendezvous at the silos."

"Why not go together?" Alex asked.

"We're gonna join up with a transport unit. You don't want them to see you. So you go on ahead, but first, come over here."

Gianni led them to a table with a shiny, anti-T'lan laser cannon and a pair of spare battery packs sitting on it.

"We've got a spare for you, Cole. Free of charge."

Gianni showed them how to fire and reload before dismissing them with firm handshakes. The corporal guided them to an exit only a few meters to the right of the entrance. To Derrick's surprise the corporal saluted them before about-facing to resume his post. Derrick handed Alex the anti-T'lan cannon and shrugged when her eyebrows rose.

"I've got my own." Derrick raised a glowing hand for emphasis.

Alex nodded and secured the cannon to her back. This pocket canyon was more of a narrow wash. It was strewn with tall boulders which they used to leapfrog their way down the path. Derrick took the lead and was squeezing his way through a section where two boulders blocked nearly the entire path, only to come face-to-face with a T'lan Elite. Derrick's palm shot forward to rest against the Elite's chest. A mid-sized pulse-sphere swelled in his hand almost instantly. Before the T'lan could react, a hole had been burned through his torso. The T'lan Elite behind that one tried for a thrust-kick which Derrick slipped under. Derrick stood, the Elite's leg resting on his shoulder, and delivered a Focused knife-hand chop to the T'lan's throat. There was a sickening crack, the T'lan's neck lost all rigidness, and then Alex fired the ATC. Derrick turned and grinned as the Assault T'lan writhed in death.

"Thanks." Derrick said, dropping his dead foe.

"No problem."

The path opened up and continued to the left but they were brought up short. There was a seemingly bottomless pit that the path circled. They could see where a bridge had spanned the gap. Now a section was missing and it looked like a _big_ section.

"Come on. There's got to be a way across. " Alex said and trotted up the path.

The two came to a camp at the top of the rise and saw a jeep of all things. Just sitting there for the taking.

"Okay." Alex said, eyeing the gap. "I think we can jump it with the jeep."

Derrick's balls threatened to climb into his brainpan at her nonchalant assessment.

_Fuck me if I want to do that._

"But we should be ready to jump out of the jeep in case we don't quite make it. Alright, c'mon, let's do it!"

_Aw, shit, _this _bitch is crazy_.

Instead of saying that, Derrick muttered, "Okay," like a jackass.

Derrick was amazed at how calmly he got into the jeep, backed up to the cliff wall, gunned it down the slope and onto the bridge. They hit the edge of the gap, the moment was surreal like one of his hallucinations, and the jeep was airborne.

"We're not gonna make it!" Alex shouted. "Jump!"

As the jeep tilted forward they jumped together. Derrick's hand clamped onto the jagged edge of the bridge in a deathgrip. Alex hit the edge with her stomach and bounced back into thin air.

Derrick reached, missed, and could only watch as Alex disappeared into darkness with a heart-rending scream.


	28. Path Of Despair

"Alex." Derrick's voice had become a lifeless croak after screaming his partner's name for several minutes.

It was only then that the intense burning in his hand and shoulder leaped to the forefront of his awareness. Mechanically, for his mind was still reeling, Derrick raised his other hand and pulled himself up onto the safety of the bridge. He rolled over and crawled back to the edge. Faint flames were visible at the presumed bottom of the gorge.

_I let her die._ Terrible pain filled Derrick as the thought sank into him like a serrated knife.

_What's one more? _A dark, insidious voice in his head added.

Mad laughter bubbled up from Derrick as he realized the voice was right. So he lay prone for an indeterminate amount of time, laughing maniacally, completely unaware of his surroundings. An entire battalion of T'lan could have come to kill him and he wouldn't have cared.

_Pull yourself together, goddamnit!_ This inner voice was his and it was pissed off. _Everyone dies, but blubbering like a baby and laughing like a crazy fuck isn't the way to honor anyone! So get up! Get up!_

Derrick rose to his feet and the laughter dissolved into several quiet sobs before he was outwardly calm.

_I'm sorry, Alex. I'll finish the mission._

The path led to a dead-end but there was a rung ladder bolted into the five meter high cliff. Derrick ascended, his exertion lacking any real enthusiasm, and his gaze immediately focused on a frighteningly familiar image once he reached the top. Rage, fear, and despair mingled together inside Derrick as he strode toward Solus.

_Wait, what's that on his shoulder?_

"Query. Question. Reason. Behavior of female… Why?" Solus asked in that robotic way of his.

"Alex!" Derrick shouted, as fear and despair dispersed beneath the shining light of hope.

Rage blossomed into a nuclear inferno at the sight of Solus carrying Alex over one shoulder.

"I think you need to let her go." Derrick growled, his fists crackling with light.

Solus cocked his head, turned, and leaped thirty meters away as though Alex were as light as a feather. Derrick ran to the base of a cliff that had a giant skeleton sitting against it and Solus jumped onto the skeleton's shoulder. Then Solus started talking as though it were a podium for public speaking.

"Investigation required. Question: Unanswered. Feel incomplete. Need answer. Question: Derrick, feel you the same?"

"I'll kill you for this." It sounded like something out of poorly written fiction but the intent behind the words was pure.

Solus laughed heartily, weirdly, before making another superhuman leap and disappearing from view. The power in his leap shattered the shoulder and produced a cascade effect that collapsed the entire torso of the massive skeleton. A colossal head, as tall as Derrick, crashed to the ground and nearly crushed him. Derrick halted the roll with a straight-arm that left a shallow crack. He stared at the spot Solus had disappeared from for only a second.

_He'll take her to Site Zero._

Derrick turned, found the opposite path, and set off at a fast jog. A ramp extended down from the cliff on this side of the excavation site.

"_Romeo-One-One-Five to Delta Two! Wojinski has been located in your vicinity. Find her!"_

"_Delta Two, understood."_

Another drop-off awaited Derrick but this time there were no convenient ways to descend so Derrick hopped off the four meter drop. He landed as light as a feather but was so focused on rescuing Alex that he never stopped to be amazed.

Derrick came under immediate fire by Assault-lasers. He used the cover of several stone formations to advance and then he systematically destroyed all opposition. A squadron of T'lan Bulbs attempted to dive-bomb him but a shockwave detonated them before they closed. The T'lan airlock in the cliff-face to his left shifted from red to blue-green after the last was dead and Derrick went through at the same methodical pace.

The scent of clean, salt air was the first thing Derrick noticed when he emerged on the other side. His steps were muffled by grass instead of echoing off stone. These things were filtered and processed but were relegated to the back of Derrick's awareness. The gorge opened up onto a cliff-side ocean view. Towering cliffs rose on Derrick's left but it was at least a hundred meters from cliff wall to cliff edge. Visible from Derrick's vantage point were a half dozen small fires dotting the path. It looked like a running battle had been fought for this stretch of real estate. More of the strange T'lan structures stained the path as well.

_Maybe it's where they're coming from_. Derrick thought as he set off again.

Three Assault T'lan milled about midway down a small slope. Three pulse-spheres burned them down while Derrick was still on the move. He jogged down the nearly picturesque environment completely focused on his goal. Two T'lan Elites waited for him, providing protection for a trio of Assault T'lan, but stupidly came forward to engage him. Derrick waited for the nearest to come within four meters before launching an explosive, Focused leaping thrust-kick. Time slowed to a crawl, Derrick thought he could see the Elite's eyes widen with shock, before his boot hit the Elite's face with a sickening crunch. The Elite flipped backwards and landed on his head at a dead angle. Derrick dipped beneath the wide left hook the remaining Elite threw, came up behind the swing, and grabbed the elbow. Derrick wrapped his arm around the T'lans neck to ensnare him in a reverse headlock. Derrick's arm flared briefly as he snapped the T'lan Elite's vertebrae.

Derrick ducked as an Assault-laser nearly decapitated him. He rolled beneath the cover of a stone plinth and returned fire. Soon all opposition was eliminated and Derrick was free to continue. The path turned away from the sea, up a slight rise, and Derrick dutifully followed.

"_Delta Two to Romeo One-One-Five. Target location confirmed. She's headed for the elevator. And don't ask how she got that far! Over."_

"_Get her."_

Derrick came to the top of the rise, a relatively flat area, and found a group of Stealth T'lan waiting for him. He went on the offensive and broke their little ambush like kindling. Their wails almost sounded like despair but such did not sway Derrick from his relentless destruction.

At the bottom of the opposing slope was a long bridge. At the other side of the bridge was a temporary barricade that looked like it was on fire. A lone figure guarded the bridge, like some troll out of a children's story, and Derrick shook his head as he moved forward.

_Oh, shit._

That was his lone thought as the figure was revealed to be a two and a half meter tall T'lan behemoth. Its chitin looked twice as heave as a T'lan Elite's, especially around the shoulders, and only small portions of the abdomen and joints were uncovered.

_It has to be as slow as molasses_, Derrick thought as he came to a stop five meters away.

The T'lan Behemoth exploded forward with the devastating speed of a defensive lineman and buried an impossibly heavy shoulder into Derrick's sternum.

_I guess not_. Derrick thought as something cracked and warm wetness covered his chin. _This'll be interesting._


	29. The Tower

Derrick fell backwards in a barely controlled tumble before scrambling painfully to his feet. He wiped the blood from his chin, noting that his health bar had been lowered by half with that single blow, and the Behemoth stood there dumbfounded. Derrick rolled his shoulders, set his fists, and went forward on the balls of his feet. This time the Behemoth wasted little time in charging Derrick. His head down and his left shoulder lead the way.

_Stupid fuck._

Derrick jumped two meters straight up and timed it so that his heel was headed straight for the back of the T'lan Behemoth's neck. He Focused and his downward velocity actually seemed to increase. Derrick's boot-heel hit the back of the huge T'lan's neck with a sharp crack. The Behemoth, already off-balance, crashed head-first into the bridge hard enough to leave a white smear. Derrick rolled off the T'lan, came up in a defensive crouch and only relaxed when the body began to condense into a health-sphere. When Derrick absorbed the sphere it felt like his first time. The rush of energy left him quivering with vitality. He felt practically invincible as he approached the tall cargo container that formed a partial blockade.

A massive fist appeared out of nowhere as he rounded a container. Derrick blocked the blow by holding out both palms and it felt like both of his shoulders were nearly dislocated. Then he was tumbling through the chain-link fence on his right. A last minute grab, completely instinctive on his part, allowed Derrick a few more seconds of life. The Behemoth walked over to the railing and proceeded to lift Derrick by his wrist. It felt like the Behemoth would break his entire arm from just that casual grip. The Behemoth looked Derrick squarely in the eye and raised a gargantuan fist to end Derrick once and for all.

Derrick raised his own first and fired a low-intensity pulse-sphere into the T'lan's eyes. The Behemoth dropped Derrick and stumbled backwards. Derrick, utilizing agility he was quickly coming to depend on, landed at the very edge of the bridge. Derrick leaped forward and delivered a Focused sidekick to the T'lan's chest. The Behemoth crashed through the rail on the opposite side and disappeared into the lake below.

Heavy footsteps brought Derrick's attention to his right. He rolled to the side, jumped out of the roll, and back-kicked the Behemoth in its ass to send it into the side of a cargo container. The container actually moved slightly and the Behemoth started to straighten. Derrick darted in and unleashed a lightning-fast combination of hooks and jabs to the Behemoth's lower back. The Behemoth tried for a spinning back-fist with surprising finesse, but Derrick had it telegraphed. He ducked beneath the blow and rose upward with a Focused uppercut that rocked the Behemoth back against the cargo container. Derrick leaped and executed a textbook Focused jumping, spinning sidekick.

Derrick landed heavily, exhaustion flooding him as his T'langen gauge dipped into the red. The Behemoth was slumped against the cargo container quite dead. Fortunately it left behind a T'langen-sphere that revitalized Derrick. After taking several breaths to calm the bass throb of his heart, Derrick made his way past the flame-topped cargo containers. This side of the bridge terminated in a grassy clearing set flush against a cliff wall. There was an outpost to Derrick's right but he ignored it and headed straight towards the T'lan airlock in the cliff-face to the left. As he approached, up a gentle slope, the blue-green energy barrier shifted to red.

Derrick's brow lowered in consternation but he resolutely continued forward despite the pair of T'lan Behemoth's that were charging down the slope towards him. He charged a pulse-sphere and launched it at the lead Behemoth. The monster dipped a shoulder but gravely underestimated the power of a pulse-sphere. All of the chitin on that shoulder boiled away to reveal pulsating flesh. The Behemoth spun to the ground with the impact and Derrick leapt over his fallen foe as the trailing Behemoth slowed to avoid a collision. Derrick Focused as he flew through the air to plant the sole of his boot into the Behemoth's sternum. The Behemoth stumbled backwards and flopped gracelessly onto his ass. Derrick turned to the Behemoth behind him as it struggled to rise with one hand. A pulse-sphere swelled in Derrick's hand and he fired it point-blank into the T'lan's skull. The Behemoth's body slumped back onto its belly with a bubbling mass of flesh where its head had once been. Derrick turned just in time to duck a massive haymaker. He drove his elbow into the side of the Behemoth's knee. There was a nasty popping sound and the Behemoth folded like a cheap table. Derrick rolled out of the way and rose to his feet with a pulse-sphere in hand. Another headshot and the airlock barrier switched to blue-green.

Derrick waited for a few moments to see if either body revealed a replenishing energy sphere. Neither did and he took a deep breath to steady himself. His T'langen gauge was only at a third of capacity and fatigue was slowly sapping his will. He windmilled his arms as he passed through the first barrier. Once the light cleared, he found himself only a few meters from a drop. It was about three meters and was easily managed. Derrick emerged into a narrow ravine with walls so high the bottom was in perpetual twilight. A hundred meters down the twisting path and Derrick came upon the tell-tale ruby flash of T'lan lasers. Using stealth techniques that came as naturally as his combat skills, Derrick eventually hunkered down behind a slight rise in the canyon floor.

A pair of Assault T'lan was firing around a turn on Derrick's right. They were receiving SMG fire from three different weapons and then there was only one weapon returning fire. The nearest T'lan was only five meters from Derrick's position. Derrick rose and strode forward with feline grace to stand behind the Assault T'lan. He grabbed its neck, his arms flaring with golden light, and twisted. As the life left the T'lan, Derrick's T'langen gauge refilled nearly to capacity. The remaining T'lan, already walking forward to finish the remaining soldier, turned just in time to have his throat burned away by a pulse-sphere.

Derrick continued, walking past the dying soldier without a glance, and came to a straight path to open sky. It was partially barricaded by equipment crates but they would be easily navigated.

"_Delta Two to Romeo One-One-Five. We're almost at the elevator. Over."_

The sound of an approaching helicopter made Derrick instinctively duck for cover. The transport 'chopper passed over him and soared toward the blue tower that was also Derrick's destination.

"_This is Romeo One-One-Five. You are authorized to neutralize the target if necessary but do not damage that disk. You got that. Over."_

"_Loud and clear, sir."_

Derrick squeezed between the center barricades and stepped into a much wider space. He saw that the canyon floor rose in a series of small flats. On the very first was a stationary, .50-caliber, heavy machinegun. It began to fire at the same time that Derrick exploded into a furious sprint. He ran towards the sand-bagged emplacement along a sharp curve. Several stray rounds connected with his shield, nearly causing him to lose his balance, but the gunner couldn't turn fast enough to track him. Derrick drew his sidearm as he hopped over the low emplacement wall. There were two other soldiers that opened up on him with SMG's before his feet hit the ground.

Half a clip later, Derrick owned that piece of territory.

Derrick turned towards the ravine just in time to see the first soldier squeeze through the chokepoint. Derrick jumped on the heavy gun and turned it with superhuman quickness. He slid back the bolt, gave a quick grin at the sound when he released it, and let the lead fly. It was like mowing down grass. Grass that screamed and disappeared into misty, crimson clouds as Derrick swept them into the machinegun's sights. Derrick was at the end of a far left sweep when movement to his right drew his attention. A soldier was kneeling with an ominous tube hefted onto his shoulder. Derrick leaped backwards just as the solider fired his rocket.

The concussion tumbled Derrick in the air but he managed to regain his balance upon a rough landing on the slope behind the barricade. He scrambled to the cover of a boulder on all fours. Derrick drew his sidearm and removed a grenade from his harness. Derrick pulled the pin but held the clip down and then he waited.

"No fucking way he survived that, Sarge!" A jubilant voice practically shouted.

"Shut the fuck up and take Griffin and check for the body!"

"What do you think we'll find?! A goddamned fin- grenade!"

The sergeant, armed with the rocket launcher, disappeared in a cloud of flame and metal. Derrick used the rest of his clip on the remaining two. Derrick reloaded his sidearm and downed a quick ration bar to fill his T'langen guage.

"It's Cole!"

_Every fucking time!_

Derrick turned, unshipped his SMG, and began to kill. That was, in the simplest terms possible, what he did for the following ten minutes. He moved, fired his weapons, and he killed. There were moments of rest as he made his way toward the base of the tower. But they lasted only long enough for Derrick to reload his weapons or to eat a quick ration bar. Several times he was interrupted by overzealous sergeants ordering improvised "carpet-bombing" with rocket launchers, but he came through only slightly singed each time.

Finally, after cleaning out a machinegun emplacement with a well-thrown grenade, there were no more soldiers trying to kill him.

"_Delta Two to Romeo One-One-Five. We have acquired the disk and the elevator has been activated. Over."_

"_Understood. Hold your position and… deal with the woman. Over."_

"_Yes, sir."_

The base of the tower was rounded with two talon-like structures curving towards it from Derrick's vantage point. Strange cables, akin to spider silk, extended from the talons tips. They came from four directions so that meant the base was big. The real oddity was that the structure was made of a washed-out blue-white material and not the chitin Derrick had been seeing all day.

Derrick quickly found an airlock barrier, far wider than those he had previously used, and jogged through it. On the other side he found himself standing on a blue, translucent bridge of light. There was no ceiling, just two thick support beams under the talons to his left and right. Other airlock barriers to his right and left were red but there wasn't any way to get to them unless he suddenly learned how to fly. The base of the tower was ahead of him but there was no way to access it either. Resting to the left of the platform high above him was the transport 'chopper. Then Derrick's eyes focused on the white-coated figure standing at the edge of the platform. He jogged up to the bottom of the six meter high wall and watched.

"You will guarantee my safety, yes?" A familiar voice carried faintly to him.

_Stefania._

The Eastern European woman was talking to someone out of Derrick's sight. There was a very faint click as someone prepped their SMG.

"What are you doing?"

"Walk over there, to the edge." Derrick couldn't be sure but it sounded like Delta Two.

"What are you going to do?" Stefania sounded panicked as she slowly complied. "I gave you the disk, didn't I?" She turned around and screamed. "No! Stop!"

Someone began to push her toward the edge.

"Please… stop this…! Please! No!"

Derrick ground his teeth together to keep from shouting as Stefania was pushed off the edge. There was another small ledge four meters below her and she hit it with the back of her head before rolling off into the six meters of space above Derrick. Derrick caught her as gently as he could and fell to the ground with her. Stefania coughed explosively, covering Derrick's chest in bright crimson globs, before settling back down with wet, laborious breaths.

"_The subject is out of the picture. Over."_

"_Understood. You men get to the Silo area and seal that elevator."_

There was a high-pitched whine that made Derrick look up to see rings of light racing up the elevator tower. Then Stefania sat up out of the growing pool of blood beneath them and rose smoothly to her feet.

"Fuck." Derrick whispered, backing up with his hands and feet.

"Oh, dear-," she slurred, "-my hair is all wet." Stefania reached back and then looked at her hand. "What?" Stefania recoiled in horror at her blood-stained hand. "No… I… I just wanted to continue my research."

Stefania reached out one hand to Derrick, he took it in both of his despite the blood covering it, while she put the other over her heart.

"I'm sorry…" She sobbed, her speech coming slightly more clearly. "Forgive me. Please… No… No."

Stefanis fell to her knees and then onto her back. She reached into her coat pocket.

"Take this." It was a level '3' keycard. "Use it. I don't want… to die."

Stefania lost consciousness and Derrick stayed with her until the end.


	30. Rock Climbing

Derrick emerged from the airlock and headed to his right. He was navigating his way through a loose group of rocks when a fire team double-timed it around the corner of a boulder. He dropped to one knee and fired a burst into the soldier armed with a rocket launcher. After that it was a simple matter to take out the other three since their weapons had little effect on Derrick. He acquired the rocket launcher and scavenged fresh magazines for his MP5.

Derrick passed the locked barrier he had seen from the inside of the elevator base and made his way to a small campsite at the far end. The distinctive sound of a firing rocket launcher had Derrick diving in a heartbeat. Some fool had aimed at his chest and it was a clean miss. Derrick scrambled to his feet and lay down suppressive fire with his SMG. Then he unshipped his rocket launcher and went to one knee.

A three-man fire team burst from around the right side of the base and began to lay down heavy suppressive fire so their artillery could get into place. Derrick fired a rocket into their formation and ran after it. Bodies flew in three different directions as Derrick slung his rocket launcher. He turned the edge and found the launcher-wielding soldier struggling to sit up. Derrick put a round in his head and headed for a stage-like setup in the cliff to his left.

_There's gotta be a way in. They have to have another way._

There was a door on the stage, complete with a keycard lock, but Derrick had the key. He swiped the card across the panel and the door whisked open. He entered a long, narrow, barely head-height tunnel that was dimly lit by T'lan crystals. Derrick followed it at a jog, through a half dozen turns, for a least two hundred meters.

"_Gianni here. Cole, you listening? Don't worry about the disk. We still have some time left before they fire that nuke. Let's stop the T'lan in the silos before that happens! We're going deep into the silo area now. I expect to see you there soon!"_

"_Gianni!" _Romeo One-One-Five sounded severely pissed off. _"You sonofabitch! You're working with Cole! I'll have your ass up on charges for this!"_

"_We'll see when this is over whose ass is strung up, bub."_

Derrick clicked on the line as he came to the end of the tunnel.

"_When this is over, I'm going to kill him."_

Then the channel went quiet.

Derrick stepped onto a damaged catwalk attached to a rock wall. He was in a huge cavern and there was a huge bridge below him. Spotlights also shone on the rocks behind him from the opposite wall.

_Shit. It's where we came in._

Derrick could see the lift shaft from here. He shook his head and made his way down the catwalk on his left. The whole damn thing looked like it had been damaged in an earthquake. The railing was totally gone in most places. Derrick discarded the rocket launcher for fear of it overbalancing him and causing a fatal fall. The catwalk ended at a solid, steel plated ledge two meters higher than the catwalk. Derrick boosted himself up and proceeded along the slightly more stable ledge. A tremor made him hug the wall as small rocks tumbled down around him. Once it passed, he saw that this ledge led nowhere because part of it had been shaken apart as it edged around an outcropping. He turned back and saw the edge of another ledge two meters above the one he stood upon. There was a space of maybe two meters separating the two edges but both were easily negotiated. The ledge edged around a corner and from that vantage point he had a clear view of a cluster of T'lan 'Bulbs five meters above him and maybe fifteen away. A couple short bursts from his SMG took care of them. Derrick jumped over another gap in the system of construction ledges and platforms to boost himself up fluidly.

A tremor struck just as Derrick was inching his way along a girder, barely half a meter wide, which led to a platform that looked stable. He dove for it, tucking and rolling, and several heavy impacts drove him to the steel floor. His shield took the brunt of the impacts so he was able to rise quickly without any injuries. A researcher's body, a woman, was arched over the railing facing the long drop. Derrick shook his head, turned, and climbed up to the next section.

Derrick ascended a ramp and another girder before circling around to find a girder sticking out of the wall. It led to another section of structures he could use to ascend on his right so he had little choice. He jumped, pulled himself up, and carefully made his way to the ledge. He came to a larger gap, maybe three and a half meters, on the other side of which sat a concrete platform. Just as he was about to make his leap a swarm of T'lan Bugs boiled out of the corpse laying there. Derrick almost pulled a grenade, reconsidered, and instead used the remainder of his magazine to clear the area. Once they were all exterminated, Derrick reloaded and made his jump.

Another tremor struck as soon as his feet hit the concrete. It passed quickly and Derrick dropped down to a catwalk five meters below him. This one led to a small tunnel in the wall that ascended in a tight spiral. It opened up onto a solid ledge and a T'lan Elite casually stepped into view to turn slowly towards him. Derrick darted forward and delivered a precise, Focused spinning sidekick to the T'lan's ribcage. The Elite tumbled through the rail and disappeared from sight.

Derrick made his way down the ledge, around a block-shaped structure, and another tremor stuck. It was weak but some debris still rained down. After it passed, Derrick came to the end of the ledge and gave a brief growl of frustration. The catwalk ended at another gap and the only landing surface was a small work area four meters below. The place was crawling with Bugs. Three short bursts took care of the Bug problem. Derrick landed as light as a feather after casually leaping the four meters of space. He slapped in a fresh magazine as he continued down the ledge on his right. Another cement structure blocked the way, this entire section looked as though it had been going under construction, but a crawlspace had been left beneath it.

Derrick was halfway through when he spotted the legs of a T'lan Elite just waiting for him to emerge. He charged a pulse-sphere and burned through the T'lan's left ankle. The foot separated with a wet snap as the Elite fell backwards. Derrick crawled out, stood over the T'lan, and gazed into his glowing white eyes.

_When did they start glowing so brightly? Doesn't matter._

Derrick grabbed the T'lan by his uninjured foot, spun the shocked warrior around three times, and launched him into the long drop. He looked to his right and saw the top of an Elite's head peeking above the edge of a platform. There was a clear space between two vertical construction towers. Not even thinking of the meter-wide gap he could fall to his death through, Derrick made a running jump and kicked himself to the top of the three meter high wall. The T'lan Elite came at him in a rush and Derrick stepped to the side. He viciously backhand chopped the Elite in the throat before hitting him with a flying knee to the chin. The Elite fell onto his back and Derrick wasted no time in assuming the dominant position. He cradled the T'lan's head, tried to recreate where he was mentally the last time, and broke his neck. The T'langen gauge rose to full without waiting for the Elite's body to reveal an energy-sphere.

Derrick left the T'lan's body where it was and pulled himself up to the next ledge. This one led up to a tower, bare girders, with a ladder that Derrick climbed without a second glance. A tremor struck halfway up but he continued climbing throughout. At the top he stepped up onto a rough-hewn rock ledge. Another tremor, stronger than the last, caused rocks to tumble down the wall. Derrick, as sure-footed as a mountain goat, kept moving. The ledge led to a wide path into the wall. The path opened up into a wide space. To the right were steel stairs leading ever upward. Derrick took the stairs at a quick job, dispatching a cluster of 'Bulbs on his way around and around until he reached the top.

At the top a combined assault was perpetuated by T'lan Bugs and 'Bulbs. It took a mag and a half to put them all down but Derrick found a spare near the body of a scientist on the bare platform his vanquished enemies had congregated on. Derrick turned back and to his left saw the brilliantly white-striated control node for the energy barrier of Site Zero. It was at least fifteen meters high and ten wide. For a moment Derrick felt small and insignificant in the face of his task. In an act of defiance, rage, and not a little fear, Derrick punched in the direction of the node. His glowing fist left a trail of sparkling motes of light behind it but otherwise the only effect was Derrick becoming mobile.

Two flights of stairs led up to the wall beside the tunnel mouth. The only things keeping Derrick from a long fall were spotlights on the floor and widely spaced arched columns of rock. Another earthquake struck as Derrick reached the top, it felt like the strongest yet, and several huge boulders thundered into the path beneath him. They rebounded off the wall and tumbled over the side. Once the earthquake had ended, Derrick walked down the steep slope and then up the gentler one on the other side.

Ahead of Derrick, strange platforms with undersides that glowed with the T'lan's signature chemiluminescence rose up on columns that faintly resembled spinal cords protruding from the wall. The wall, which Derrick had assumed to be rock, now appeared to be some bizarre combination of T'lan chitin and minerals. Derrick approached the bottom of this T'lan lift-column and watched as the arch-shaped lifts were extruded from a thin slot at the base of the column. An intensely bright, otherworldly light was emanating from that slot and after being nearly blinded by a casual glance, Derrick averted his eyes.

Derrick looked up and saw that man-made platforms had been erected at the top of this column. Another T'lan column, beginning where this one ended, would carry him even higher. Once the next lift extended Derrick stepped on it. He rose with deceptive speed and before he knew it the lift was slowing down as it neared the solid steel platform. Derrick hopped off and immediately leaped four meters across neighboring platforms as a lift rose into view. He was nearly to the top of the wall when a 'quake struck and a boulder the size of the lift just narrowly missed his lift. Derrick watched the rock fall with a disgusted frown.

The lift reached the top of the wall and Derrick stepped onto a metal platform. He looked up and saw that he was nearly to the top of the cavern. Barely a hundred meters separated him from the ceiling and a gigantic circular vent in the cavern ceiling. The place he was in now was a cut-out section of cavern wall. Three of the odd spinal columns graced the far wall. They looked big from a distance of fifty meters. As Derrick approached he could see a T'lan airlock behind a cluster of rocks in the center of the space. Of course the barrier shifted to red before he closed within twenty meters.

Reddish rings of light danced along two of the four strange tubular devices above the barrier. Figures, Assault T'lan, were propelled out of them like circus performers. Before the one nearest Derrick, to the far left of the airlock, reached the apex of his flight Derrick was charging a pulse-sphere. As the Assault T'lan floated down, Derrick fired and burned a hole through his torso. He charged another as he rounded a rock to head towards the other side. The Assault T'lan was already on its knees, charging a shot from its main cannon, but this time Derrick had a pair of Behemoths charging towards him.

Derrick fired the pulse-sphere at the Assault T'lan and furiously backpedaled while building a shockwave. He was not quite fast enough and icy, searing pain lashed his left pectoral muscle. A glance showed that the Assault T'lan had paid the ultimate price for holding his position and getting that shot off. Derrick released the shockwave and it managed to knock the Behemoths off their feet. He leapt and brought a Focused knee-strike down into the T'lan's massive neck. It convulsed powerfully and Derrick was tossed aside. Several T'lan lasers speared the space he'd just been ejected from. Derrick looked up and saw that two more Assault T'lan had flanked him.

Derrick executed a standing backflip that carried him three meters into the air to land atop the boulder behind him. He slid down the other side and skulked his way deeper into cover. The laser burn already felt healed but T'langen-fatigue was hitting him hard. He concentrated on slowing his breathing and racing heartbeat. Derrick focused on listening for his enemies and was surprised to hear three 'Beats as though they were Stealth T'lan. One 'Beat was powerful, like a crash of thunder, while the other two had electronic undertones.

One 'Beat, an Assault T'lan, if Derrick's guess was right, was alone and approaching from the right. Derrick circled behind it, quietly scampering over several obstacles, and snapped its neck. The burst of T'langen energy raised Derrick's gauge by half. He charged up another pulse-sphere, turned a corner, and fired it directly at the Behemoth's face. The large T'lan tired to duck but only succeeded in having the top of his skull burned off. Derrick sprinted for the Assault T'lan as it raised its main cannon. He grabbed the barrel and bent the appendage away, but the T'lan placed his other hand against Derrick's stomach.

Tiny lances of pain burned their way through Derrick's abdomen and out of his back. He grabbed the offending hand as his life gauge dropped to a third. Derrick's T'langen gauge began to drop as his body tried to repair the damage. Then the T'langen gauge, in correspondence with his life gauge, began to refill as he crushed the T'lan's hands in grips crackling with yellow light. Once Derrick was fully healed, he tossed the lifeless husk of the Assault T'lan on the crystal-embedded ground.

The barrier shifted to blue-green and Derrick entered at a jog.


	31. The Silo

Derrick dropped down three meters and into an airlock differently configured than the ones he had experienced before. It was much wider and the exit was not protected by an energy barrier. Instead there was a brilliant bar of light outlining the place where the barrier should have been. Derrick jogged past it and to a place lit by circular spots on the walls as bright as the barrier-line he had just walked over. In the floor under the lights was a hole that dropped into a steep slope. Derrick hopped down and slid on his feet to the flat area. This place was also brightly lit by the wall-lights. The flat area ended at another drop which deposited him in front of a wall with a thin slot beneath it. The space was large enough to slide through but was filled with that intensely bright light. Derrick squinted, dropped to his belly, and crawled through the opening. Once on the other side he gave himself a minute to blink tears away. Then he rose to his feet and started up the incline. He stepped through another deactivated energy barrier and into a sea of white.

It was a massive circular clearing, at least half a kilometer wide, which had a floor of a blinding white hue. The sky was red and was flowing in a single direction like water. At the center of the clearing was what could only be a T'lan rocket. It was at least two hundred meters tall and looked as though it had been constructed of the large T'langen crystals Derrick had been encountering. The rocket was also more whitish-grey than black which seemed to be an indicator of T'lan machinery. The base of the rocket, the launch apparatus most likely, was solid T'lan chitin. Ridges, probably six of them coming from six different directions, came down the depression's walls to disappear into the ground. The ridges reappeared, only a few meters from where they had vanished into the ground to, converge on the sides of the base.

There were ten more rockets rising all around Derrick's clearing, presumably cradled in launch pads of their own.

"_Gianni here._ _We're deep in the silo area. Watch yourself. This place is crawlin' with T'lan freaks!"_

Derrick circled the rocket until he came to a sanctuary of human technology. It looked like a power system for the anti-barrier laser cannon that looked like it had been blown up. A soldier's body lay just in front of a doorway into the interior of the rocket. Derrick was approaching it, eyeing what looked like a column of whatever the sky was made of, when a cluster of 'Bulbs raced from the energy column's center. Derrick's SMG made quick work of them and he was free to pilfer the body. It was one of Gianni's Marines so he knew he was on the right track. Once he salvaged the ammo and single ration bar Derrick entered the hole in the base of the T'lan's launch cradle.

The center shaft was exactly like the stuff in the sky. It looked sort of like a gas, flowed upward with the fluid nature of a liquid, and glowed as though it were irradiated. Derrick looked down and discovered he was walking on transparent, resinous material filled with the stuff. Odd glowing panels lined the walls, all the way around, and as far as he could see up the rocket's length. Derrick peered at one closely and his skin turned clammy. A T'lan Elite stared back at him through the aperture. The rocket was full of T'lan, Gianni had told him, but having the awful truth in front of him was another thing. Derrick spit in the gas-liquid column and looked for a way down.

The ledge he was on was very small and ended after barley three meters. There was another across a meter wide gap and he hopped across. At the end of that he saw a ledge three meters below that he jumped to without hesitation. He turned, for there was only empty space in that direction, and a short time later he descended by another short drop. This ledge continued for a dozen meters, winding down the wall, before ending in another drop. Derrick spotted a cluster of 'Bulbs, raised his MP5, and eliminated them.

Derrick noted with detached interest that a portion of the central column was covered in scabrous chitin. The walls around him were also growing more solid because, he assumed, they didn't have to contain a variety of T'lan automatons. After a couple more drops the walls of the central column grew translucent and Derrick could see strange barrel-shaped objects flashing through the gas-liquid tube.

Finally Derrick reached the bottom of the shaft. Most of the doorways were blocked by the radioactive gas-liquid but one was clear. It looked out into a chamber with white nodes handing from the ceiling. Derrick took one step into the path between the chamber and the silo shaft. Two of the tall barrels shot out of the floor under the nodes as he approached. They attached themselves to the nodes and a T'lan Elite burst from each.

Derrick cinched his MP5 to his chest and charged a pulse-sphere as he walked towards them. The Elite on the left chopped Derrick and tired for a flying sidekick. Derrick swayed to the side, grabbed the outstretched leg, and palmed the Elite's face with his pulse-sphere and. Derrick released the pulse-sphere as he pushed the Elite into his comrade. Before the living Elite could push his dead brother off, Derrick was slamming his heel into the Elite's throat analogue.

Derrick took a moment to study where the Elite-filled barrels had risen from. There were no obvious mechanisms beneath the nodes, only holes that gave direct access to the gas-liquid permeating the structure. He shrugged and moved back to the path around the rocket base. Only five meters to the left he discovered another chamber and two pods emerged as soon as the chamber came into view. The fronts opened and a pair of Assault T'lan dropped to the floor. Derrick raced towards them, already charging a pulse-sphere, and fired just as they gathered their wits. The one on the left spun away with a gaping hole in his torso while the other raised his primary laser-cannon. Derrick was already inside striking range and a thrust-kick catapulted the T'lan into the far wall. He slid to his knees beside the T'lan and hammered it with palm-strikes until he was sure it was dead.

Crystals, the length of his hand, littered the ground around Derrick. Some of the crystals had the residual taint of high explosives on them and bright light illuminated the immediate vicinity. Derrick turned and found himself facing a large portal in the back of a small structure standing at the far end of the chamber. It might have taken precious time to find it if he hadn't kick the Assault T'lan back here. The walls of the portal were blindingly white but Derrick's eyes seemed to have adjusted themselves to the extreme of light. The portal dropped down into a chute that let out onto a short bridge. The bridge ended in a small, circular area. When Derrick got close to that area a swarm of Bugs came at him. Once they were dealt with he watched as small cargo-platforms slid along ceiling tracks to deliver T'lan-pods into the gas-liquid column of the T'lan rocket. He knew he was underneath the place he had seen the pods racing to be place in the rocket.

Behind Derrick was a wall of gas-liquid that the empty cargo-platforms passed through on his left. Then to the right of the chute they came out with a T'lan pod in their clamps. He needed to go towards the gas-liquid column to follow Gianni and the only way across the ten meter gap was to hitch a ride. Derrick jumped, grabbed the edge as a cargo-platform passed, and pulled himself up. He hugged the chrysalis-like pod as he sailed over a seemingly bottomless pit. Derrick looked into the pod and saw a Stealth T'lan in a pose that led him to believe it was a stasis pod of some sort.

The cargo-platform passed through the portal separating this loading area from the central column. Derrick spotted a ledge and hopped off before the pod and platform passed into the gas-liquid center. It looked as though Derrick would spend a lot of time climbing down through this silo.

It was going to be a long day…

…approximate one hour later.

Derrick dropped down to the bottom of his fourth section of T'lan silo. A tear in his pants, just above his left knee, widened so much that he angrily tore the entire bottom half away. That tear was the result of a T'lan laser that had nearly burned away his knee. The last chamber had disgorged a quartet of Assault T'lan. If it wasn't for the constant absorption of T'langen energy Derrick knew he would have been dropping from exhaustion.

Derrick stepped into a higher chamber than any of the other. It actually looked like he might have reached the bottom of the silo. The chamber circled the base and looked constructed of _solid_ T'lan chitin.

"_Cole! The enemy's hitting us and they're hitting us hard! You gotta help us. Get your ass up here! We'll try to hold out somehow 'till then."_

To Derrick's left, down a slope and against the wall, was a doorway lit by one of the eerie nubs that the pods attached to. The doorway led to a tunnel with the white-striated motif of T'lan engineering. A short way down the tunnel laid one of Gianni's Marines. Derrick quickly secured some additional ammo and a ration bar before moving on. The tunnel gradually grew higher and wider through a number of turns until Derrick came to a downgrade. The tunnel walls, now at least five meters apart, were lined with strange circular fixtures that glowed malevolently. They made Derrick's skin crawl as he walked past them. The downgrade continued for two hundred meters before leveling out and Derrick had to take care of a cluster of 'Bulbs on his way down. The fleshy-looking bastards were just waiting to take him out. Derrick crossed fifty meters of relatively level ground before the floor rose as an increasing angle. Another two hundred meters, as well as several clusters of 'Bulbs, put Derrick at the top of the far side. There was an open airlock there that he quickly strode through.

"_Cole! Where the hell are ya? We ain't gonna last much longer here!"_

"_I'm coming as fast as I can,"_ Derrick growled in frustration.

Derrick had stepped into a colossal space. The ceiling rose to a conical point at least two hundred and fifty meters above him. Delta-shaped windows, ten meters tall, let Derrick see out into a vast underground cavern filled with silos. He could tell that's what they were because he had just had to descend into one. The three chambers radiated out from each of the three loading levels around a colossal shaft. There were windows stretching all around the chamber and several silos were visible through each one.

Derrick began jogging around the central structure of the chamber. The round structure was ringed by pairs of the T'lan ejectors he had encountered at the top of the rock wall. Just as he saw the ruins of human technology in front of a red airlock, the one nearest him activated and ejected a Stealth T'lan. Derrick was there before he feet fully settled, picker her up, snapped her neck on the run, and tossed the body aside. A second Stealth T'lan, her cloak active, came at him from the right. Derrick fired a fully-charged pulse-sphere at through he sternum and kept moving.

A Behemoth was actually standing on a cargo container next to the burning laser cannon. Derrick raced for it and killed the pair of Assault T'lan flanking the container before they could charge their lasers. The Behemoth jumped off and Derrick Focused. His flying thrust-kick hit the Behemoth so hard the T'lan sank into the cargo containers metal side. Two Focused straight punches collapsed the Behemoth's chest cavity, also covering Derrick's own torso in the whitish fluid that erupted from his foe's mouth, and Derrick waited to collect a T'langen-sphere.

Derrick clicked on his transmitter, "_Hold on, Gianni! I'm coming."_

Derrick sprinted through the opaque airlock barrier.


	32. Armageddon

Derrick ran down the slope of another wide tunnel at full speed. He knew he was headed towards another silo but that was where Gianni was. Three Assault T'lan were waiting to block his way but it was almost child's-play to dodge their lasers and burn them down with pulse-spheres. Their aim was very poor when it came to moving targets. The tunnel narrowed, twisted a bit, and let Derrick out in the chamber around another silo's base. An earthquake rocked the chamber as Derrick approached the central shaft.

"_Holy mother of Christ!_ _They destroyed our fucking countermeasures! We can't block Nexus' commands now! Get your head down!"_

"_Fall back, Gianni! Fall back to the silo! I'm comin' up!"_

Derrick charged past another of Gianni's fallen Marines and into the silos bottom. He leapt, grabbed a ledge, and vaulted up to his feet. Alex would have been proud of him as he climbed the silo. He hopped onto meter wide outcroppings like they were a klick wide and raced along ledges only to hurl himself into the air to reach the next section. He reached the top and hitched a ride on a pod-platform to the chute. He jumped off, rolled, and came to his feet at a run. Derrick ran up the chute, pushed off the edge, and back flipped halfway across the chamber. Unfortunately Derrick landed between a pair of Assault T'lan as they emerged from their pods.

Unfortunate for the T'lan.

Derrick brought his foot down into the side of the T'lan on his left. When he started to drop he twisted its head around at a grotesque angle. The Assault T'lan behind him raised his repeater arm but had his sternum compacted by a standing back kick. Derrick turned, darted off his left leg, and brought his knee crashing into the face of the T'lan before it hit the ground. Derrick circled around to an opening and began climbing another section. Tremors shook the silo as he climbed but Derrick was undeterred. At the top of this chute he was a little more cautious and simply vaulted up and twisted on mid-air to and facing the central shaft. Four pods shot into their nubs. Two Assault T'lan and a pair of Elite's burst out to engage him. Derrick raced forward and burned through the cranium of the Elite on the left. He gave the Elite on the right a Focused, full-body tackle. They both sailed into the Assault T'lan standing behind the Elite. Derrick heard bones snap as they tumbled together and he only hoped none were his. When they came to a stop against the shaft wall, Derrick found that he was still alive and unbroken. The T'lan were quite dead though. He stood, turned and caught a T'lan-laser on his left bicep.

There were two distinct, blinding flashes of light and two odd sensations. The first was a searing pain in his left arm and was accompanied by the scarlet flash light. The second was icy, soothing sensation that came a split-second after a flash of azure light. Both Derrick and the T'lan looked down expecting the human's arm to be severed. To Derrick's delight and amazement there was no wound. This vest was charred and his short-sleeve was gone but his skin was undamaged. Derrick's T'langen gauge was nearly depleted though. That did not stop Derrick from crushing the Assault T'lan's skull against a wall. He took a few precious seconds to absorb some much needed T'langen energy before continuing on his way.

Derrick came to a bank of computers in front of the entrance to the central shaft. Several Marines lay in front of the equipment in various states of death. He gritted his teeth and started climbing.

_They're not my squad. Why do I care?_ But Derrick knew why he cared.

Derrick hadn't been able to save his old squad and he'd be damned if the only comrade he had left would buy it. Derrick came to the top of the chute and paused as the radio crackled to life.

"_Aw, shit, we're screwed! They just keep coming…!"_

Derrick raced passed the opening pods in a blur of speed, ignoring the impacts of laser repeaters against his back, and began climbing the next section. Several more tremors shook the silo but Derrick climbed like a maniac. Derrick vaulted into the next chamber, turned and growled as six T'lan Warriors leaped out of their pods. He charged into the center of the pasty bastards' formation and released a shockwave that flattened the Warriors into the walls. Derrick ripped a ration bar from his vest and wolfed it down as he raced for the final section that led to the "surface".

A very powerful 'quake struck just before Derrick reached the doorway to the launch pad. He stepped outside and was stopped in his tracks by the scene before him. A dead Marine lay a couple meters in front of him and Gianni was slumped against the support wall on his left.

"No," Derrick whispered, kneeling in front of Gianni.

Gianni coughed, "Cole… Yo buddy, we fucked up."

"Don't talk! We'll get you fixed up!"

Derrick couldn't believe those words as he spoke them. It was amazing the man had come this far. The prongs of his laser weapon were partially melted from overuse. A massive burn in his right thigh was still smoking. Gianni's torso looked like a Stealth T'lan had nearly skewered him. His lips were gray and bloody foam was gathered at the corners of his mouth.

"Shit! I'm the only one who made it… And I ain't goin' no further."An earthquake began shaking the ground and just kept gaining in strength. "The only option left is to destroy Nexus." Gianni was having an increasingly difficult time talking. "But I think it's… probably too late."

Gianni's eyes closed and his head slumped lifelessly forward.

"I'll finish it, pal," Derrick stood, "One way or another."

Derrick ran around the silo, following the trail of blood splatter left by Gianni, and came across the battlefield. A large ramp led up a dark mound of T'lan chitin. The bodies of at least half a dozen Marines littered the ramp and the space immediately before it. Smoke rose into the sky from the areas to the right and left of the top of the ramp. At the top Derrick found large, unidentifiable banks of equipment that had been thoroughly demolished.

The rumbling suddenly stopped only to increase tenfold. A bass roar came from the launch pad and Derrick turned just in time to see the T'lan rocket rise on a pillar of blue flame. It sank into the gas-liquid sky and disappeared from sight. All around him rockets did the same from their launch pads. The sky actually rippled as the rockets pierced it.

"_Romeo One-One-Five, this is Charlie Two. They're launching some kind of rockets from underground! I can't believe what I'm seeing!"_

"_Charlie Two, what's going on?"_ Romeo sounded excited but oddly unconcerned, almost detached, "_Give me details."_

As the military lost control of the situation, Derrick watched in horror as another T'lan rocket grew right before his eyes. Like some sort of bizarre sculpture the crystals grew from the launch cradle.

"_The sky is full of these weird-looking rockets flying all over the place! What the hell are they? Wait, one of them is coming apart in the air! Something's falling out!"_ The second T'lan rocket launched as Charlie Two freaked right out. "_Hey, they're T'lan! That rocket was _full _of 'em! Holy shit! They're being spread across the entire world! Watch out!"_

"_Charlie Two, come in,"_ Romeo still sounded like this shit happened everyday in his world.

"_We're under attack by the T'lan! They've got lasers! We need reinforcements immediately! There's too many of them!"_

Another rocket had grown and launched as everything went to hell on the surface.

"_Charlie Two to Romeo One-One-Five! We need reinforcements, now!"_

In the background, through the static, Derrick could hear the harsh clatter of automatic weapons. Finally no more rockets appeared to disappear and the earth quieted.

"_Gentlemen… I'm sorry,"_ Romeo still sounded cool as a fucking cucumber. "_We failed. We've lost the war."_

"_Colonoel?"_ this voice was new and younger, "_Colonel! Sir! No! Sir, please put the gun down."_

There was a single shot that sounded like it had come from an old service revolver.

"_Romeo One-One-Five, what's going on?"_ Charlie Two sounded panicked but like he was holding his nut together.

"_This is Romeo One-One-Five,"_ the voice was young and decidedly nervous, "_Christ… Colonel Anderson's dead. He just wasted himself."_

"_Why that colossal sonofabitch!"_ Charlie Two sounded pissed, "_He bugged out and left us to deal with this fucking mess!"_

_I can still destroy Nexus._

Derrick turned and entered the open airlock in the wall behind him.


	33. Fate

Derrick passed through six, long airlock passages before coming to a strange T'lan barrier. It was partially solid, like half of a spider web blocking the exit, with a palm-sized node in the center. Derrick held his hand out and his arm burst into fiery life. Once his hand touched the node the gas-liquid barrier dispersed. Derrick stepped onto a platform suspended in nearly featureless, white void. An island floated maybe fifty meters below and away from him. Prong-like towers rose up from the base towards round depressions in the indistinguishable ceiling. A strange circular section in the island's center drew the eye. A series of floating platforms led down to the island.

As soon as Derrick's feet hit the island his gaze fixated on a cage at the opposite end. A single figure was barely visible inside it. Derrick raced towards it and his heart almost leapt from his chest as he closed the distance.

It was Alex.

Alex was suspended in an ovular cage surrounded by a thin barrier of gas-liquid. A white node sat in the corner of the lattice-work that gave the cage its shape. The node turned red, the barrier faded, and Alex fell into his arms. She was bruised, had superficial cuts, and looked exhausted but Alex was blessedly alive. There were several tears in her clothing, baring flesh that would have tantalized Derrick under normal circumstances, but any injuries in those regions had long healted.

"Hey there," Derrick said, smilingly down as her as he lowered his partner to the ground.

"Derrick," Alex whispered, "Run."

"Leave the female. Baggage."

Derrick gently lay Alex down and handed her a ration bar.

"Eat this." Derrick turned to Solus and tossed away his MP5. Then he took off his flak vest and tossed it away. "Ready to die?"

Derrick raised his fists and went forward on the balls of his feet. He met Solus in the center of the island and threw a sweeping left hook. Solus caught it with contempt and sneered at the traceries in Derrick's arms.

"Are you ready?" Solus mocked as crimson hued gas-liquid capped the island.

Derrick tripped Solus' left leg out while pressing forward. Solus hit the ground hard and Derrick was right on top of him. Derrick mounted Solus, locked his ankles beneath Solus' lower back, and held his wrists. He looked into Solus' iridescent blue eyes before smashing his forehead into the bridge of Solus' nose. Derrick raised his head and brought it down again but this time he Focused. Something crunched nastily in Solus' cranium but the bastard kept trying to buck Derrick off. Derrick released one of Solus' arms and delivered a short punch to his throat. Then he released Solus' other hand to pummel him with both fists.

Derrick started to scream in incoherent fury as he destroyed Solus' mockery of the human visage. He delivered Focused blows until his T'langen gauge was drained and then he kept striking until he could barely lift his fists. Solus no longer moved, breathed, or offered up even a feeble struggle at that point. The T'lan's skull was a broken mess of flesh, bone, and whitish blood.

Derrick rolled off of Solus and began to laugh maniacally. He slowly rose to his feet and started toward Alex. Alex stood there staring at him with an astonished air. Then her look turned to one of abject terror.

_Oh, fuck no. Please no._

Derrick turned and watched in stunned horror as a brilliant electric blue halo surrounded Solus' body. It seemed to originate from the island itself. Solus' skull reknit itself, his face filled out, and he flipped to his feet.

"Not finished yet," Solus stated as though he rose from the dead every weekend. The light filled Solus' body while the island shook as the T'lan was supercharged for lack of a better word. "Round Two."

Solus rushed Derrick and Derrick raised his arms to block the blow. Consciousness-robbing pain flooded his abdomen as the world spun out of control. He landed on his belly and struggled to rise but a horrifying numbness was spreading through his abdomen. Solus came to stand over Derrick and cocked his head to the side in obvious amusement.

"It is over, human," Solus said and kicked Derrick in the ribs with titanic power.

Derrick spun through the air, hit the ground, and rolled for what seemed an eternity before coming to rest with his back to the cage. Somehow he managed to raise himself into a sitting position before the numbness spread through his entire body.

_This is it. Time to die._

"_Dragon One-Two, this is Command,"_ the voice sounded vaguely familiar, "_Commence Operation No-Retrun, over."_

Alex leapt in front of Derrick and fired off an entire clip from her sidearm as Solus indolently walked towards Derrick.

"Will the female save him?"

Alex tossed the weapon aside and, in the same motion, threw a spinning back roundhouse kick.

"_This is Dragon One-Two, say again?"_ this voice spoke with a decidedly Southern twang.

Alex used the momentum to spin around into a forward roundhouse kick that Solus also easily dodged. Alex threw a brilliant combination of punches and kicks that Solus avoided with deceptive smoothness. One hook missed, Solus slipped to the side and derisively pushed Alex away. She stumbled to regain her balance and Derrick could only watch as Solus resumed his march.

"_Dragon One-Two, I repeat: Commence Operation No-Return immediately!"_

Alex came up behind Solus and narrowly avoided a backhand. She came back with a wide left hook that Solus swayed back from. Alex turned it into a combination but Solus caught the third punch.

"_Dragon One-Two, do you copy?"_

Solus pulled Alex toward him, let her hand go, and used the same fist to deliver an uppercut to Alex's midsection. Alex doubled over and Solus raised a knee into her jaw that rocked her onto her heels. Solus threw a blistering haymaker that finally spun Alex off her feet. Solus stood watching Alex's prone form as it feebly writhed.

"_Wilco. Commencing Operation No-Return, out. Damn, why did it have to come to this!"_

"Stay down," Derrick croaked, tears sliding from his eyes as Alex slowly rose to her feet.

Alex came at Solus but he planted an almost lazy kick into her gut. She doubled over but started to straighten out when Solus delivered a hook to her cheek. Alex put her hands up but another hook swung her around so her back was to Derrick. Solus hit her with a standing roundhouse that elicited a gasp of pain as Alex flew through the air. She slid on her belly all the way to Derrick's feet. Derrick summoned all his remaining strength and managed to pull her across his knees.

"Improbable." Solus sounded genuinely amazed.

Alex grabbed Derrick's shoulders and raised her head to look into his eyes.

"This must be my fate…," Alex's hazel eyes filled with tears, "Dying like this. At least… at least, there's still hope."

"What?" Derrick croaked in sheer disbelief.

"Don't look at me like that," Alex actually chuckled, "Your work has just begun. Derrick…" tears began to wet Alex's face, "You have to save us! Save us."

Derrick leaned forward and planted a gentle kiss on Alex's swollen lip, "I promise."

Solus stepped up to tower over them both. Alex slumped in unconsciousness as the ground began to 'quake.

"Impossible. Game over."

Out of nowhere a nuclear missile dug a crater into the island's center. Solus turned to it in shock. There was a message on the side of the missile. Derrick read it while a bass whine rose in pitch.

'Game Over.'

Derrick grinned mirthlessly as the whine reached a crescendo and pure light snatched the world away.


	34. Reality

The pure light was gradually pulled into a single point an infinite distance away. Derrick found himself floating in a blue-black void filled with sparkling motes of light being drawn to that distant point.

_I guess they were right about the tunnel… I'm sorry Alex._

What the omniscient "they" had never mentioned was the green-hued, medical status display that suddenly popped up in his visual field. In fact, the damn health and T'langen gauges were still there as well.

_What the fuck?_

There was the outline of a human body in the lower right corner but that was about the only thing he understood. Then the word 'DISCONNECT' blocked out his gauges complete with a large X through them. They faded away quickly and a second later static washed the gauges that had been with him for twenty-four hours away. Before he could ponder this change, the ghostly cat crawled beneath his bent knee. It was only then that Derrick realized he was in the exact position he had died in. The cat turned huge, yellow eyes on him and wiggled its ears. It craned its neck up and let loose an unearthly meow. Then it ran towards the distant place where the stars were disappearing to and Derrick followed.

The point of light grew with dizzying speed and then he was falling through. It was a circular tunnel with walls of purple-white light. Strange clusters of crystals decorated the walls for short stretches. Rings of light occasionally washed down the tunnel ahead of him. Then a burst of light obscured his vision only to be replaced by a screen of static.

Derrick was back in the hallway where the flesh had melted from his bones, watching as his hand became skeletal, and then he was back in the tunnel. The tunnel twisted, dipped, and sped him onwards.

Static and he was running towards the desert…

More tunnel…

… A flash of his touching a talking pillar…

… His speed was increasing as he traveled the tunnel…

… And he was running toward a mirror in a stranger's body…

… The next flash-memory-hallucination was of the Stealth T'lan disguised as Alex.

Then it all stopped and the world was white before it winked out like a television set suddenly without power. Derrick found himself in peaceful darkness and he was content to wait. The only sound he could hear was his own shallow breathing. Slowly a faint beep, like that of a pulse monitor, came to his ears.

"He's completed the neuromatrix decode sequence with the MemScan," the voice sounded odd and Derrick didn't recognize it at all. "And he's made it through the hallucinations. Theoretically, he should wake up soon."

A deeper voice replied with desperate longing, "I sure hope so."

Light slowly returned to Derrick and with it came the faint overlay of the med-stat display. But beyond it was the ceiling of children's toys he had thought he'd dreamed so long ago. He tried to move only to discover that his hands and feet were bound.

"Hey, look!" the first voice shouted.

"Well, what do you know!" the second deeper voice sounded just as excited.

A figure appeared above him and the stat screen rose up. The man was dressed in scientist garb and his gray-brown beard lent gravity to his expressive features. There was a surgical lamp above Derrick and he could tell he was in some kind of pexiglas covered enclosure.

"Relax, it's over," the brown-skinned scientist was the owner of the deep voice, "You're still alive."

The enclosure Derrick was in rotated so he was nearly vertical to the sound of applause. Somebody had drawn the image of a cat on the plexiglas and words beneath it. They looked like, 'Hope Is A Waking Dream' but Derrick couldn't be sure. There were three other scientists in the room. One other black man, a Caucasian, and the third looked Japanese. Their uniforms were dirty… and the younger black man's looked covered in dried blood.

The older scientist came to stand in front of the tube, "We have Stefania to thank for this."

_Audio pick-up._ _That's why they sound funny._

"Her prototype gave us hope again."

The bald scientist on the right was furiously typing away at a computer terminal. To Derrick's left was the younger black scientist and behind the scientist was a stuffed bear three feet tall.

Derrick turned his attention to the talkative scientist, "Was I dreaming?"

The sad-looking scientist shook his head, "I wish it was a dream Derrick. I want you to remain calm and listen to me. You losing that fight and Alex dying… those are events that occurred a long, long time ago."

The scientist paced back and forth in front of security glass that looked into an empty room.

"We were using a 'Memory Scanner' to help you re-experience your own memories of past events."

The left door in the room behind the security glass opened and a T'lan Elite sprinted inside.

_Oh, shit. Why me?_

The younger scientist turned around frantically, "They'r ehere."

An Assault T'lan entered and fired a blast at the glass but it refracted the laser harmlessly. It moved on through the right door and several of its T'lan brethren came with it. The glass lid rose up and the electronic manacles unlocked. Derrick glanced down and was relieved to find that he was in a clean set of the tactical gear he had been wearing for what felt like years.

"Try moving around," the older scientist sounded unnaturally calm.

Derrick tried to lurch out of the seat but instead crumpled on the floor in front of the Memory Scanner. Without warning, a door behind the device was kicked off its hinges and hit the younger scientist on the left in the abdomen. Door and scientist hit the security glass hard enough to leave huge cracks in it. Derrick could only watch in impotent fury as the remaining three were burned down by precision laser blasts.

A pair of Assault T'lan sauntered over to survey their handiwork. Both leveled their primary blasters at Derrick.

_No fucking way._

Rage ignited the T'langen power plant in Derrick's body and his arms burst into incandescent life. Both T'lan took a shocked step back and that was all it took for Derrick to rise to his feet. A spinning back kick pulverized the lower abdominal cavity of the closest and, once he spun back around, a pulse-sphere took care of the second. Fighting without gauges would take a little getting used to but he had stopped looking at them until they got into the red anyway. Coughing behind him made Derrick turn to the older scientist as the man held both hands to a burn in his abdomen. Derrick knew the man didn't have long but he still knelt and put a hand on his shoulder.

"They say every cloud has a silver lining. That must be you huh?" The man coughed and his head rolled to the side, "I'm glad you… woke up… in… time."

Derrick closed the man's eyes and rose to his feet.

_I've got to get moving. Find out what the fuck is going on. I'm taking this shit way too matter-of-fact. Most people would be total nutjobs at this point. Shit, maybe I am and I just don't know it. Stop it. Gotta move._

Derrick absorbed a T'langen-sphere and left the playroom. He stepped over the body of yet another scientist and turned to look at the room. There was a sign at the side of the door that read 'β Project'.

_Still in the fucking Science_ _Center._

The halls were much darker though. It looked like only the emergency floor lighting was working. Derrick trotted his way through a set of automated doors on his right. In the next junction the only unlocked doors were to the left. He stepped into some sort of medical ward. There were two sections of the room. A narrow section was directly ahead of him with a medical cot partially blocking the entrance to a small operating room. To the right was a larger area he assumed was for observation.

Of more immediate concern were the five T'lan, three Assault and two Elites, waiting for him.

One Assault T'lan was isolated in the small operating room and Derrick wasted no time. He sprang up and off the cot to hit the Assault T'lan with a leaping front-kick to the head that flipped the T'lan into the wall behind the surgical table. Derrick ducked behind the table as the Assault T'lan in the other section fired through the broken observation window. Derrick slid beneath the table, braced his hands under it, and Focused as he pushed off the ground. The table burst from its mooring with a shriek of twisted metal. Derrick hurled the table through the observation window and crushed the remaining Assault T'lan beneath it. They weren't dead, but they wouldn't bother him for awhile.

Derrick turned and casually leaned back to avoid a vicious hook thrown by an Elite. He fired a powerful jab into the T'lan's neck that made it swell nearly instantaneously. Derrick pushed him away as the second rushed at him. The Elite tried for a thrust-kick but Derrick saw it coming from a klick away. He dodged to the left, brought a right hammer-fist down into the T'lan's outstretched knee, and his left elbow crunched into his enemy's throat. The Elite crumpled with a gurgling wail.

After Derrick finished the pinned Assault T'lan, he examined the room and was shocked to recognize it. He and Alex had passed through it either before or after seeing the Beta Project children. Only the security glass separating the sections had been intact then. A clipboard next to the cot read:

**Priority Message:**

**The Anti-T'lan Laser unit's defensive line has been breached. The enemy has entered Terminus 4. β Project subjects much head to D-Block to stop further enemy incursions. The following are the dispatch orders:**

**Test Subject 12: Ernest**

**Defend Corridor #7 at all costs and stop the enemy.**

**Test Subject 15: Andrew**

**Defend non-combatant living quarters.**

**Test Subject Elliot**

**Eliminate enemies in Corridor #6**

**Test Subject 18: Alex**

_No fucking way_, Derrick reached a shaky hand out to caress her name.

**Guide survivors to K-Block.**

Derrick set the clipboard down and lowered his head for a moment.

_Get a grip, Derrick. She's dead. Everyone you knew is gone. All you got now is revenge. Get you ass in gear._

Derrick exhaled gustily and exited via the set of push-button doors in the larger area. Memory made him veer right to another set of push-buttons. It opened up to reveal the β Project observation room. From here he and Alex had seen the children of the Beta Project. Before the room had been empty but now computer equipment sat in all four corners. Derrick went out through the series of dimly lit airlocks and memory once again guided him through the darkened corridors. Up a series of ramps and through a couple of push-buttons saw Derrick in the hallways outside of Stefania's office. Once again he entered but the area was vastly different.

It looked like a bomb had gone off in the room and someone had done a makeshift job of repairing it. The second floor was completely gone where Stefania's office cubicles had been. Instead there was a wall there, with shattered windows no less, which blocked anyone from falling down into the open space where the first floor was. Derrick walked down the stairs on his right and discovered that the first level was the same. Besides a cluster of tables in its center, and the filing cabinets blocking access to the area where Stefania's Memory Scanner had been stored, the room was empty of furnishings.

Derrick smiled grimly as he saw that some kind soul had left an MP5 and 9mm sidearm on one of the tables. Both weapons had full ammo loads and there was even a spare clip for the sidearm. On the table next to the weapons was an antiquated audio cassette recorder, complete with a small stand of cassettes to its right. He secured his SMG, removed the topmost cassettes, and placed it in the pop-up receiver. Derrick pushed the receiver down and hit play.

"This is tape number one," it was Glen Ogawa's voice and Derrick was unbelievable relieved to hear a familiar voice, "Apparently the T'lan have infiltrated the shelter. This location is no longer safe. Derrick, I am recording these messages for you. These are the things you _must_ know even if I die." Glen paused for a moment, as if contemplating what he had just said, before continuning. " You be must told where, no, when you are now."

"The future? No shit," Derrick muttered but he kept the cassette rolling.

"And what has happened. When we found you, your memories had been completely destroyed. You were in a coma. I made an attempt to repair your memories… using the MemScan. The MemScan is a machine that can read memories and re-sort them in the proper order. It was Doctor Stefania Wojinski's invention actually."

"According to Doctor Wojinski, as the MemScan reads memories, the patient experiences the original events once again. These moments in the past which are relived seem real to the patient, almost like a dream. Do you understand, Derrick? All of the things you experienced before waking up… your defeat, the death of Alex, all of these events were what we call a 'MemTrace'. You were merely retracing your past memories. Unlike dreams, however, every even you experienced actually did occur in the past."

The cassette stopped and Derrick quickly swapped it for the second.

"Tape number two. Derrick, do you remember a desert appearing in the middle of the Science Center? And do you remember the cat that appeared at this time? Both of these events were generated by the MemScan. Human memory is not flawless. I said this machine allows you to 're-experience memories', but the process is not perfect. Some memories become lost. These lost memories are replaced with those drawn from the brain at random and used to create nonsensical episodes. These fabricated memory constructs are much like what you would experience in a hallucination. That desert was one such hallucination. These 'hallucination' are nothing more than an attempt by the MemScan to preserve the continuity of your memories. Without them the order of your memories would be irrevocably destroyed."

"Yet if you cannot make it past these hallucinations, it is unlikely you will ever awaken from your comatose state. Although these hallucinations are nonsensical, they appear very real to the person who is experiencing them. They can suck you in if your will is not strong enough. If you have awakened, then this is the result of your making your way through the maze of your own memory. No one can help you through this. All we did was turn the MemScan on. Of course, it makes me wonder; maybe the world I see before me now is just another hallucination!"

"I hope it is," Derrick whispered as Ogawa continued.

"But that is not possible. I have seen no cat. The cat _always_ appears when a hallucination is about to occur. It is an image of a real cat that once belonged to Doctor Wojinski. She included it in the scanner program as a signal to the patient that a hallucination is in progress."

The tape stopped and was immediately interchanged with the third.

"Tape number three," Ogawa sounded as though he was exhausted, "You must have seen our world already. This is a world dominated by the T'lan. In the time since the events recorded in your memories, they have conquered us. At the instant of the nuclear explosion you 'time-slipped' to now… fifteen years in your future."

"Fifteen fucking _years_," Derrick's voice was a hoarse croak as the shock stole his voice.

"No one knows with certainty what triggers a time-slip, Derrick, but I have a theory that, in your case, this phenomenon is based on the reaction between the shield energy produced by the T'lan and the energy from the nuclear explosion. This reaction must have caused a temporal rift in the space-time continuum which triggered the slip. And you were caught in it, Derrick. I believe the proximity of Solus to ground-zero of the nuclear explosion was key in triggering this effect."

"But no matter… what is important is that the laws of physics dictate that you will most assuredly return to the past. Time-slip victims can never stay long in their new time period. This is due to the Pendulum Effect. The exact mechanism of the Pendulum Effect is still a mystery to us, but we do know one thing. When you swing back, you will return to a time just before the time you left. Do you understand, Derrick?"

"This gives us a second chance! You must relive this short moment in time to stop Nexus and change history! Or this T'lan infested world… this will be your future! This is why we woke you up. You are the only person who can change our world! Of course, just going back will not be enough. You would simply lose to Solus again and history would repeat itself. But we have a plan. We had plenty of time to thing about this, you know."

"Derrick, ever since I formulated this plan, I have pondered one thing. If you change history, and the T'lan disappear, what will happen to us in this time? Will we cease to exist as well? Or will both timelines remain? I cannot say." Glen's voice took on such a melancholy tone that Derrick felt great pity for him. "I cannot say for sure… I do know that whatever the result, it will be an improvement on the current situation. This is why we are placing our fate in your hands. You are our hope. Don't let us down, Derrick."

The tape ended and the final cassette went in.

"This is tape number four. Back to the matter at hand. Defeating Solus. Actually-" alarm klaxons started going off in the background of the recording. "Wha-? Those bastards! T'lan soldiers are closing in! I'll go to the Cental Processing Room. Derrick, please go there before the Pendulum Effect takes you back! It's time for you to save us all!"

The cassette end and Derrick could only stare down at it. One though kept repeating itself over and over again.

_I can save Alex._


	35. Eyes Of Sorrow

_A/N: This one is very short but I've been gone for awhile and I also think the end is a very good stopping point to really let what almost happens sink in. I hope all five of you enjoy._

* * *

Derrick tried the door he had gone through before but it looked they were fused shut. He kicked one, leaving a fairly large dent, but the doors barely budged in their moorings.

_Maybe through Stefania's workshop._

Derrick headed past the table with the cassette player and stopped in front of the blocked threshold. There were three file cabinets blocking the wide entryway and it would be a simple matter to pull the center one aside. Just as his hand grazed the edges, the cabinet slipped sideways to crash to the floor and a T'lan Bug came flying at his face. Derrick's arms came up instinctively and a weak ShockWave tossed the small swarm of Bug's across the room to splatter against the walls.

Derrick spit derisively and stepped into the room. A pair of bodies, one fully in a bloody sheet, while the other's face and torso had been feasted on by the Bugs. Derrick turned away from the chewed remains and headed to the doorway on the left. It looked as though someone had removed the door with tools.

Derrick walked down several steps into a darkened corridor. His eyes flashed, the pain considerably less than he remembered, and once again Derrick found himself able to see in the dark. He went through a set of push-buttons, came to a cross section, and went right. It was another set of push-buttons and the only one with a working pad. This hallway was crossed by two others with automated doors at every exit including the one at the far end. All of them read red except for the doors in the second hall on his left.

Derrick stepped to the doors, they opened, and a T'lan Elite took a step back in surprise. Without hesitation Derrick hit the Elite with a flying knee to the sternum. The blow flung the T'lan into the air and he slid to a halt against the turn of the corridor. Derrick ran full speed, dropped to the ground, and slid with his boot leading the way. The Elite's head caved in and his neck snapped wetly.

A peculiar electronic mumble was Derrick's only warning but it was enough. He rolled to the wall on his right as the Elite slammed its knee down where Derrick's head had just been. Derrick stood and fired a pulse-sphere into the T'lan's head as he recovered. Derrick paused a moment to collect the T'langen and life-spheres his enemies had kindly left behind before continuing down the hall. He passed side corridors that led to locked automated doors before coming to the end of the hall. He turned the corner and was caught flush with a beautiful left hook.

The world exploded in a flash of light, he felt himself spinning, and then everything went dim for a moment. Derrick stumbled, desperately trying to right himself, and was brought up short by a wall. A foot connected with his ribs and lifted him off the ground. Every single jot of air left his lungs but Derrick's vision cleared.

Derrick's feet hit the ground and he twisted to deliver a Focused uppercut to the T'lan's jaw. The crack of fist meeting chin was only amplified by the Elite's neck twisting at an extreme angle. The T'lan bounced off the ceiling and fell, far too slowly to be normal, in front of the opening doors.

Derrick straightened, very painfully, and spat a thick clot of blood onto the floor. He wiggled his jaw, wincing at a gruesome grind-and-pop sensation before absorbing the life-sphere the Elite had dropped.

_Better be careful. Some of these fuckers aren't underestimating humans anymore._

Derrick walked through the doors and into a small cross section with a set of green-lit, automated doors at the opposite end. He was only a couple of meters away when the faint sound of a woman sobbing reached him.

_Survivors!_

The thought spurred him to job through the doors in direct contradiction to his thoughts of only seconds before. He passed through the doors and headed down stairs leading to disgustingly familiar corridors.

"Please, Ernest! Don't die! Please!"

The voice, and the name, were familiar, but he couldn't place either.

_Shit, I'll be lucky if I remember how to shit after the day I'm having._

Derrick hurried down the stairs towards the voice. Through a doorway on the right he saw the body of a scientist. He ran passed it, the man was definitely dead, and turned the corner. His surroundings passed in a blur all to the sound of the woman's sobbing. In the back of his mind he realized he was following a trail of bodies as color bled back into his vision.

_Shut up, lady. They'll be all over us!_

Derrick turned left and saw a figure at the end of a long corridor. The sobbing had stopped and that unsettled him. He jogged up behind the figure and came to a stop when he saw its ass. Derrick recognized the shape of that ass even in the dim light.

_It can't be!_

Derrick's eyes rose and clammy sweat burst from every pore in his body. Alex was standing as straight as a ghost with her hand cannon held to her temple.

_What the fuck do I say!_

"Hey, Alex. Whatcha' doin'?"

_Oh... that was really good, Derrick, ya dumb fuck._

Alex didn't move, breathe, or speak.

"That's a big step, Alex. A big, _final_ step. I thought you never gave up."

Alex whirled and lowered her cannon to point directly at his throat.

"Who the fuck are _you?_" Alex practically roared, spittle actually flying from her mouth.

Alex looked tired, haggard, but relatively uninjured except for being horribly dirty. Several smudges gave her pale skin a decidedly earthy tone.

"It's me, Derrick Cole. Don't you know me?"

_Oh, wait. She won't._

"_You're_ Derrick Cole. I've heard about you, but I don't _know_ you," Alex holstered her weapon and lowered her head as she took a deep breath, "I'm Alex."

Alex knelt down beside the corpse of a soldier with a bright red mohawk. She placed his hands beneath his sternum slowly and with great reverence.

"The scientists used to tell us stories about you. Every night. Fairytales they told the Beta Subjects. About Derrick Cole. The greatest soldier humanity ever created. They said that you were asleep and that you would return to us in our darkest moment." Alex lowered her forehead to the soldier's hands. "You... finally woke up then. I'm glad because I'm at the bottom and its pretty fucking dark." Alex rubbed her face briskly. "There... there might be survivors."

Alex looked up at him with the such sorrowful eyes that something deep inside him rolled with intense emotion.

"Let's move it, soldier," Derrick held out his hand.

Alex studied Derrick's hand for a moment before taking it in a strong grip. Derrick pulled her up and looked deeply into her eyes.

"I'm going to stop them. Are you with me?" Derrick asked her quietly, his arms glowing dimly.

Alex looked down at his arms in wonder before looking back up and nodding, "I'm with you."

"All the way?"

Alex pinned Derrick with that sorrowful gaze, "All the way."


	36. Ghost Town

Derrick watched Alex carefully as she went to the keypad to the right of the heavy doors at the end of the corridor. She moved with purpose, deadly serious purpose, but something told Derrick it was a facade. He could feel the tension coming off her as though she was a tightly wound piano string.

The door opened and they stepped through together. It was a large space akin to the lobby area before the cemetery that Derrick had visited so long ago. One long, florescent light gave off plenty of light. The benches were strewn about the hall and one rested against the far pylon that divided the room in two.

Blocking the exit were a pair of Assault T'lan and a Behemoth.

Alex drew her huge combat knife and charged them without a word. She moved with her usual fluid grace but there was an intensity that Derrick had never seen before. Before Derrick had taken three steps Alex was using a bench as a post to launch herself into a forward flip over the heads of the T'lan. They tried to turn but Alex was already sliding her blade into the lower back of the Assault T'lan on Derrick's right. The Behemoth hunched down for a shoulder-tackle and Derrick jumped. The Focused jump-kick hit the Behemoth where the end of his spine analogue was. A series of quiet popping sounds was nearly lost when the big T'lan fell. Derrick turned and watched as Alex drove her blade into the neck of the remaining Assault T'lan. She let the T'lan's body fall, wiped the whitish blood off her weapon and walked through the entryway.

Derrick followed Alex down a corridor, past another scientist's body, and around a corner. The corridor ended where someone had blasted a hole in the floor. The other side looked as though it were still intact and Derrick thought he could make the five meter gap. Alex barely slowed down and practically ran off the edge. Derrick followed suit and managed not to break anything on the rubble at the bottom. There were automated doors at the bottom of the rubble pile and Alex passed through them.

Here was a place Derrick recognized. On the right was the door to the cemetery and straight ahead led to the corridors with the moving walkways. Alex went through the doors leading to the walkways and the place had definitely changed for the worse. It looked like explosives of some kind of been used inside the corridors. The path besides the walkway on the left was a crater for most of its length while the walkway itself was in perfect condition and still moving. The ceiling was bare in places, revealing electrical conduits, and pipes of unknown usage, and even the walls looked dented outward.

Of more immediate concern was the trio of Assault T'lan waiting at the far end of the corridor.

"I'll han-" before Derrick could finish, Alex was charging off again.

Derrick sent three pulse-spheres sizzling past her before she was halfway down the walkway. The Assault T'lan on the left was partially obscured by the doorway there and managed to avoid being burned away. Alex pushed off the right rail and stabbed the T'lan through the eye while in mid-air. Thankfully she waited for Derrick to catch up. He felt her eyes on his as he absorbed a T'langen-sphere. Neither said a word and they headed through the door on the left. The other direction was blocked by rubble and Derrick didn't think they had time to even think about moving it.

The two hurried down the corridor, Derrick taking a microsecond to make sure his reflection was himself, came to another turn and the corridor shook. A second later alarm klaxons blasted Derrick's ears and a crimson warning light on the wall to their right activated. They shared a look and headed down the corridor more cautiously. They came to the body of another soldier.

Alex stopped and went to one knee. The one was on his back and she gently removed his helmet. An SMG, a pair of magazines, and several grenades had fallen from the soldier's harness. Derrick quietly collected them while Alex laid the soldier's hands on his chest.

Alex stood and they walked the short distance around the corner. Large T'langen crystals crunched beneath their boots as they approached where a set of heavy steel doors had been blown apart. Piercing down into the Science Center was what looked alarmingly like a T'lan rocket.

"This must be where they got in," Alex confirmed Derrick's assumption.

A hole had been neatly cut into the side of the rocket and gave them access to its interior.

"If this leads up to the surface we can take a shortcut to Glen. I'm sure he's alive and waiting for you," Alex started towards the rocket, "He had to be,"

"Wait," Derrick stopped her with a hand on her shoulder.

Alex started in surprise and gave his hand a long glance. It was as if she wasn't used to casual physical contact.

_What the hell kind of life did she have? What kind of life _could _she have?_

"I'll go first. Never know what's waiting."

Alex fixed him with a level stare before smirking slightly, "It's all yours. Hotshot."

Derrick grinned like a kid at Christmas at the familiar name Alex had used for him. They stepped onto a semicircular platform of gas-liquid, really just a half meter wide ledge, and looked up to see that other ledges led to the top. They were tiered in a way that it would be easy to climb the inside. The brilliant white interior didn't even faze Derrick like it used to. He flexed his legs, pushed off, and cleared the two meter space between ledges with centimeters to spare. A second later he was sailing up to the next ledge.

_It makes sense now,_ Derrick thought as he climbed. _That's why she was so familiar with me. Why we worked so well together from the start. It all one big circle jerk. I wonder when she started wanting to fuck me?_

At the top was a broader ledge opposite the slimmer one that led to another opening. It was a little below street level so Derrick had to hop up onto the blacktop. It was immediately apparent that he wasn't in Kansas anymore. The air was full of T'langen spores, the little motes of starlight floated in every direction, and it was dead quiet. The buildings around him were dark and fire-damaged. Most of them looked as though their entire fronts could slide off at any moment. Rubble-lined the street and there were even the shattered shells of cars scattered along the street. To his left, beside one such car, were five T'lan Elites.

The Elites came charged at him together and Derrick raced to meet them with an evil grin. Two of them stumbled, he assumed they were not used to seeing a human come charging at them with such a sick grin, but they quickly regained their composure. Derrick held his shockwave until the last moment. The center Elite leapt for a flying sidekick and Derrick released. All five were flung away like matchsticks and Derrick Focused spin-kicked the T'lan before he hit the ground. Derrick leaped four meters to his left and slammed his heel down on an Elite's sternum with crushing force. He turned his head in time to see an Elite gather himself for a flying knee.

Out of nowhere Alex sailed forward with a thrust-kick that rocked the Elite back. She followed that up with a spinning back-kick that lifted the Elite off his feet. The finish came in the form of her combat knife being driven up into its chin.

Derrick turned at the sound of running and rolled backwards to avoid the thrust-kick. The Elite spun around with a roundhouse kick and Derrick caught it with his hand and chest. Derrick knife-handed the T'lan in the throat, the flash of his hand actually left an afterimage, and tossed the dying T'lan away.

Alex walked up to him, sheathing her knife behind her back in a motion almost too fast to be followed, and watched as he absorbed the T'langen-spheres of two of the Elites.

"Maybe they were right about you, hotshot. Let's go."

The clouds were high and thin so the moon was more than capable of providing adequate light. Derrick followed Alex down the street to their left. Where the street would have turned right, int to an or parking lot, an earthquake had raised that entire section up. Two or three buildings had shifted on their foundations to create a pocket canyon of sorts. Derrick and Alex jumped to the raised street and continued down the concrete canyon until they were brought up short, only a few meters in, where a concrete column was partially blocking the way.

A soldier lay against the building wall on their right with his brains smeared all over it. Derrick went to one knee facing the opening beneath the column as Alex lay her comrade on his back. A swarm of Bugs arrived with all the motion but a couple of bursts from his SMG took care of them.

Once Alex finished, they crouched their way beneath the slab. They continued through a number of turns in the narrow confines between buildings until they came to an open area just in time to see an Assault T'lan burn a hole through a soldier's chest.

"Fuck!" Alex snarled and rushed the Assault T'lan.

The T'lan was dead before Derrick could begin to charge a pulse-sphere. He was considering if he should take the soldier's anti-T'lan laser cannon when an Assault T'lan started down the slope in the street. Here the street had been driven up a good four meters but there was a convenient path to the top. Someone fired an ATL-bolt and severed half of the T'lan head off.

"Someone's alive!" Alex cried and they raced up the hill.

The soldier dove towards them and was struck in the torso by several T'lan-lasers. He was dead before he hit the ground and Alex kept going up the path. Before she neared the pair of Assault T'lan that had killed her comrade, a jumbo ATL-bolt separated the furthest from them's torso from his lower half. A pulse-sphere finished the other.

"I'm going to check them, then we check that," Alex said, pointed to a busted window on the third floor of the building on their left.

Derrick nodded and waited for her return by swapping magazines. She came back with slumped shoulders.

"It's no good. They're all dead."

Derrick put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed slightly.

"Let's check out that room."

Alex nodded and led the way to the end of the road. There was an alcove in the right wall of the building blocking the road. Derrick signed for Alex to open the door and she nodded. He readied his SMG, with a pre-pulse-sphere charge in his hand, and Alex pulled open the door.

It was clear and Derrick moved into the darkened stairwell. Alex moved up the stairs with purpose and stopped at the third landing. Once again Alex opened the door and Derrick swept the area. It was a small room with another door on their left. This door opened to reveal a narrow hallway. A swarm of Bugs infested the hall and several bursts eliminated them. They followed the procedure with the door at the end of the hallway. This time the way was clear and they entered a larger desolate hallway.

Alex raced to their left and was brought up short by a huge gap in the floor. It was at least seven meters long. There was no evident bottom and Derrick could only consider how that had happened.

"There's a ledge and an overhead pipe over there. See you on the other side."

Alex gave him a small smirk, backed up, and ran full tilt toward the gap. If Derrick hadn't known Alex, and what she was capable of, he could have thought she was insane.

_Well, she _is_ kind of insane, but the good kind._

Alex took a step and suddenly was running along the left wall. Derrick could only shake his head in amazement as she streaked to the other end. Alex pushed off into a twisting flip that landed her facing him. Derrick gave her a slow clap and chuckled.

Alex put her hands on her hips, "You coming, hotshot?"

_This is crazy_, Derrick thought as he backed up. _I hope this works like the movies._

Derrick sprinted near the left wall and, just as he reached the edge, pushed off the wall towards the right. When he neared the right, nearly three meters across the gap, he pushed off of that. One gentle push off the left wall carried him to the ledge where Alex waited. Now she gave him the slow clap and a soft chuckle.

"Nice footwork. C'mon."

There was an entryway on the left that Alex jogged through. Derrick followed her into a room cluttered with racks and desks. Alex navigated the maze quickly and led Derrick to where a gap had been dug in the wall. She crouched and sidled her way into the next room. It was brightly lit and the distinct sound of an ATL-firing suddenly broke the silence.

Derrick followed Alex and stood in a small utility room. Most of the wall to their right, what they had seen from the street, had been blown out. The ATL was ceiling-mounted and generator powered. The spotlight illuminating the room was also had a feed to the generator.

Alex stared at the laser cannon, but didn't really seem to see it.

'It's no use," her voice sounded broken, "There's no one alive, is there? It's the same all over this world."

"Hey. We are. That's something."

"Yeah," Alex nodded and exhaled gustily, "Well, no reason to stick around here is there? Let's keep looking."

Alex went out onto the ledge, through the shattered wall, and went right. Derrick followed her to an office and through two more rooms until they came to another T'lan rocket that had pierced the building. Alex gestured for Derrick to proceed her and he did so with a regal nod. Alex snorted as he passed her and swatted his arm.

At the bottom they emerged into low-ceilinged, wide corridors that Derrick remembered quite vividly.

"The Treatment Room's just up here! Alex said, her voice brimming with hope and enthusiasm, "Glen'll be there."

Derrick smiled to himself as Alex came to life.


	37. Ultra Accelerator

The Central Treatment Room was nearly untouched by the ravages of war and time. Almost all of the equipment was gone, the charred spot where he had tossed a grenade was still there, and there was a lot of dust on every surface. The raised area where the Treatment Chair was located gleamed like new. Unfortunately there didn't seem to be a soul alive.

"Glen!" Alex called as she headed right towards the steps up to the dias.

Harsh coughing from the chair was her only answer but it _was_ an answer.

"Who's there!" she asked, cautiously making her way up the steps.

A familiar lab-coated figure staggered out of the chair.

"You're here," came a hoarse, weary voice.

"Glen! You're alive!" Alex's voice was a mixture of relief and disbelief, "Are you alright?"

Ogawa staggered over to the stand of tray's in front of the Treatment Chair and retrieved an automatic injector. He stumbled and fell to the ground as he turned to them. Derrick and Alex rushed to his side. Derrick noticed how ragged and dirty Glen's clothes were. His hair was completely white and when, he looked up, Derrick saw that his face was heavily-lined.

_Probably stress._

Glen held up the hand not holding the injector, "Lend me a hand, will you, Derrick?"

Derrick gently held Ogawa's arm in both hands and helped him to his feet. He put the older man's arm across his shoulders and let him catch his breath.

"I can not die, not yet." Glen said, his voice full of unimaginable sorrow and exhaustion, "Not until I give this to you."

Ogawa held up the injector. There were two vials connected to the body of the injector. One was filled with red liquid while the other was blue.

"What's that?" Alex asked, her brow furrowed as she stepped closer.

"Time was all we had in abundance, Derrick..." Glen turned to Alex, "This formula is completely_ pure_." Glen hit the button on the side of the injector and the side vials emptied into the main reservoir to produce a indigo solution. "This is the _Ultra_ Accelerator."

"Ultra huh. Sounds-" Derrick was interrupted by a tremor that shook the room.

Glen flew from his grasp, the Ultra Accelerator flew from Glen's hand, and Alex stumbled backwards before she could grab it. The injector bounced on the floor and disappeared beneath a loose grate in the floor. In an eerie repeat of past events, the door on the landing above opened and T'lan emerged from it. This time it was a group of four Elites.

"Derrick! Use the Accelerator!" Glen yelled from the floor.

"I'll hold them!" Alex shouted as she drew her knife.

Derrick vaulted over the rail to his right ad spotted a gap in the paneling to his left. He squeezed between the dias on his left and the raised monitoring area on his right to reach it. He dropped beneath into the gap and beneath the floor into the narrow maintenance tunnels beneath the grated panels. Derrick followed the tunnel through several turns until he came to the end and saw the injector.

"Get back, Glen!" Alex shouted before giving a cry of effort.

Derrick scooped the injector up and placed the needle against a prominent vein in his left arm.

_I hope it doesn't hurt much_, Derrick thought as he shoved the needle home and pulled the trigger.

The Accelerator seemed to drain in a flash and the effects were instantaneous _this_ time. Pain far greater than even before flared in his left arm. The pain spread into his torso and from there to the whole of him. He dropped the injector and flung himself into the wall as muscle spasms rocked his body. He held out his arms to see the brilliant white light shift hue to violet. Even his gut churned and howled at the concentration of T'langen that had been introduced into his system. Then, just as quickly as it always did, the pain of Acceleration faded and Derrick was a new man.

_This... _this_ feel right._

Derrick could feel the energy coursing through him. The power in his muscles sang to him of their destructive potential. Everything looked so must brighter, crisper than it ever had, as though he had never been able to truly _see_. He could hear six'Beats, four of them T'lan, one human, and the last unique.

_Alex._

Derrick bent his knees, raised a hand, and sprang upward. The heavy steel grating conformed around his purple lightning fists like wet paper and he flung it away as he reached the apex of his jump. He looked down to see he was four meters above the dias... nearly touching the ceiling. An Elite had Alex backed into a corner while the other was coming up on her left. The third was stalking Glen on the opposite side and he assumed the fourth was dead. They all looked up at his sudden appearance.

"What the fuck?" Alex shouted as Derrick floated down as slowly as a piece of fluff.

"Our savior is born!" Glen shouted melodramatically as he slid away from his pursuer on his elbows.

_I have to get down faster,_ Derrick thought and just like that he was falling like a rock.

Derrick landed in front of Alex and watched as Glen was stalked on the other side. His gut churned and adrenaline flooded his system. He had been experience the effects of overstimulated adrenal glands all day, one of the reasons he assumed he got so tired after using his powers, but it was nothing like this. Everything around him slowed to a crawl as though the world was in super-slow motion.

_Gotta move,_ Derrick thought and proceeded to do so with a speed and fluidness he had never known.

Derrick backhanded the nearest Elite with all his might and the blow sent the T'lan careening into the air... in slow motion. Of course his neck was twisted almost completely out of place so Derrick wasted no time in planting a spinning sidekick into the next one's gut. That one folded up a pancake as he sailed through the railing behind him. Derrick sprinted across the dias, palmed the Elites face from behind and kicked his feet out from under him. While the T'lan was still rising, Derrick smote him down with a crackling hammerfist that made the T'lan sink into the dias floor.

Derrick took a deep breath and the world sped up again. He offered his hand to Glen and the older man took it. With little effort, Derrick hoisted him to his feet. Another tremor rocked the room, the alarm klaxons shut off, and a Behemoth entered the room through the lower level doors. A single Assault T'lan appeared on the upper level.

"Watch him!" Derrick told Alex as another jolt of adrenaline pushed him into overdrive.

Derrick posted off the rail and practically floated to the upper level across three meters and up four. He landed behind the Assault T'lan and, before it could think to turn, he broke its neck. A rush of energy filled him as he held the dead T'lan by the neck and threw him into the trailing Behemoth as it came down the ramp leading to the monitoring area beside the dias. Derrick vaulted over the rail on his right, the same he had just jumped over, and came down in front of the lead Behemoth.

At that moment his burst of hyperspeed chose to run out.

The Behemoth didn't even act surprised and Derrick leapt forward with a front-kick. A T'lan Behemoth could overturn armored vehicles with ease, so it was inconceivable to its small brain that a human could hope to stop it. Derrick's boot connected and the Behemoth slid backwards clutching its abdomen. Derrick followed up with a spinning sidekick that completely folded the T'lan in on itself.

The second T'lan came at Derrick with a shoulder-tackle and Derrick fired a pulse-sphere in the blink of an eye. He casually stepped to the side as the headless corpse crashed into the wall. The final Behemoth finally got to his feet and cautiously approached. Derrick charged the T'lan and delivered a full-force straight punch that drove the Behemoth back a meter. He stayed on his feet somehow but the white light in his beady, little eyes was dimmer. Derrick went inside the Behemoth's range with a series of lightning-fast, brutally damaging jabs before stepping back, spinning on his heel, and delivering an overhead straight punch that punctured the Behemoth's midsection.

Exhaustion slammed into Derrick but he simply drew T'langen from the corpse he held up by his arm. When he was done, feeling practically invincible, the body disappeared in a flash of light. It even left his hand clean.

Derrick turned to find Alex staring at him with wide eyes.

_Yeah. This is the moment._

Wow... you're amazing!" she shouted with glee.

"Let's check on Glen," Derrick said, grinning at her.

"Glen... Are you all right?" Alex called, rushing around to the stairs of the Treatment dias.

Derrick followed her but as soon as his feet touched the first step he knew something was wrong. It was as though he were attached to a bungee cord that had been stretched to the limit. No matter how hard he strained he couldn't move an inch. White mores of light began to orbit his body. Then his feet left the ground and he was floating before the dias. There was no pain... only a curious stretching sensation.

Alex turned and took a step back in shock, "Now what!"

"It's the Pendulum Effect!" Glen shouted.

Suddenly the doors Derrick and Alex had come through opened. A squad of soldiers came into the room being led by a young black man, teenager really, that looked vaguely familiar.

"Jameson!" Alex shouted, waving.

"Goddamn, it's good to see you Alex! Where's Ernest?" the teenager asked, gesturing for his men to cover the entrances.

"He didn't make it," Alex's voice was somber.

"What's up with him?" Jameson asked, hoping over the rail on the other side of the dias from Derrick.

"He's Derrick Cole," Glen said, stepped to Jameson's side.

"Ah," the kid shot Ogawa a look, "Pendulum Effect?"

"Yes," Glen nodded, "Stand back, everyone, or you'll get pulled in!"

Circles of light began to revolve around him as though Derrick were the center of a huge gyroscope.

"Did any of the others make it?" Alex asked, her eyes fixed on Derrick.

Jameson sighed deeply, "I'm sorry, Alex. No. You're the last."

Alex walked up to the top step of the dias.

"What are you doing, Alex?" Glen asked, only Jameson's hand on his arm kept him from coming closer.

"If I don't go, who's going to make sure you save the world, hotshot?" Alex smiled sadly, "Isn't that right?"

Glen lowered his head, "But if you go... you _will_ die."

Alex shook her head, "But the future will be saved."

"Alex..." Jameson sounded like he was going to cry.

"Just tell me one thing," Alex still had her eyes fixed on Derrick, "What should I do?"

_Ha! That's a big thing._

"First," Glen said, stepping closer as the circles of light began revolved faster. "You must meet up with me in the past. And then you must save Derrick!"

_Yeah._ Great_ way to sum that up, Glen._

"You don't have to come!" Derrick shouted but it was as if no one could hear him.

"All right."

Glen turned to Derrick, "Derrick, Alex _will_ be killed by Solus. But you may be able to change the course of _your_ destiny!"

Alex turned quickly, "Goodbye Glen. Derrick, you're father would be proud of you."

_Sheesh, the kid's got my name._

"Never give up, Alex! Remember that!" Jameson shouted as Alex hopped off the dias and the sphere of light quickly pulled her in towards Derrick.

"Now go!" Glen cried as Derrick caught Alex by the shoulders, "Go save our world!"

The world disappeared in a white flash as Alex shifted Derrick's hands into hers. When the light faded, they were racing through the strange tunnel Derrick had gone into the future through.

"I don't know how long this'll take, Alex," his voice had an odd echo to it, "I still don't know that much about you. So... wanna share?"

"Where should I start?" she asked, focusing on Derrick and not the tunnel.

"At the beginning?"

"Well... I don't remember much before our first treatment. I was young and you know it messed with your memory. We were all orphans; some of us put up for adoption, some of our parents were dead. The Science Center adopted us for the Beta Project."

Derrick growled, "That's fucked up."

Alex shrugged, "There are worst things. I didn't start training until after the T'lan Invasion started..."

Time seemed to hold no sway as Alex told Derrick about her life. How Michael Jameson had arrived in Tokyo to help train the Beta Subjects and reunited with his brother as well as bringing his wife and son. About her friendship with Ernest and the kinship of the Beta Subjects. She cried when she talked about Ernest and the others, but underneath it all Derrick could detect a deep loneliness. Alex didn't talk about it much, just a sentence here or there, but Derrick got the distinct impression she had been exception even among her fellow enhanced comrades.

_It would explain how she keeps surviving when everyone else dies. And why she's not used to someone treating her like... a person. Shit._

"So, Derrick, what about you?"

"Nothing much to tell. You're the only thing I can really remember and in a while you'll be living it too. Just remember not to say anything about this future business. I'll freak out."

"Okay," Alex nodded and bit her lip, "It's my fate, isn't it? I'm going to die."

"I won't let you die," Derrick growled fiercely.

Alex laughed, "That sounds like a promise!"

There was a flash and Derrick was watching the moment before the 'nuke exploded in reverse. Alex was there and began speaking backwards as well. Then Alex and Solus were fighting. Derrick was whisked back to lying in front of Solus.

Then Derrick flashed back to the tunnel to find he had lost his grip on Alex.

"Fuck!" he spat through gritted teeth as he tried to catch her flailing arms.

"Derrick! Don't leave me!"

"Never!"

He flashed again and watched the T'lan rockets descend into their pods. Derrick watched Gianni come back to life and then he was back in the tunnel. Alex was even further away this time.

"Derrick, we're going to materialize at different times! But I'll find you somehow... I swear!"

"You will find me!"

Derrick flashed and watched Stefania rise from the dead. Then she rose back up to the base of the tower. Another flash and Alex was further than before.

"Derrick! I'll see you again!"

"I _will_ save you!"

This time the light faded slowly and when it did Derrick was standing in front of the giant's skull. Time reversed itself until Solus was standing on the giant's shoulder. Light flashed and Derrick could move. Before he could gather himself to jump, Solus was leaping away.

_I'm coming, Alex._


	38. Rewriting The Past

Derrick slammed home a fresh magazine and paused to take in the view of the tower twenty meters from its base. It looked the same as it had the first time. Gently curving sides, faded blue-white exterior, even the soldiers guarding the entrance had been in the same exact positions. The only thing that was truly different about the place was Derrick himself. He had blown past every obstacle like a juggernaut. There had been several short, post-Acceleration episodes that had only made Derrick more formidable. He had made better time this go-round and the transport helicopter was a few minutes from arriving by his estimates.

Derrick hunkered down in the cover of a large boulder and the towers base. He listened to the radio transmissions and gave a mirthless chuckle at Romeo-115's bullshit. Then something unexpected came over the radio.

"_Delta Two to Romeo-One-One-Five. We're almost at the elevator. Sir! It looks like a goddamned warzone down there!"_

"_Settle down, Delta Two! It must be Cole. There's no direct access from the base to the elevator anymore. Not even Cole can jump that high. Keep focused. You are authorized to neutralize the target but do _not_ damage that disk. You got that? Over."_

"_Loud and clear, sir!"_

Derrick chewed on a ration bar as he watched transport 'chopper circle around the tower looking for a place to land. He calmly got to his feet when it disappeared from sight and made his way along the wall to the wide T'lan airlock. He passed through the blue-white energy barrier, once again noting the matrix that was plainly visible to him now, and stepped onto the translucent bridge. With measure steps he walked towards the two walls that raised the elevator base above the towers. The bright white hue of them seemed much more vivid than they had before.

Derrick stopped at the bottom of the first six meter high wall and calmly waited. When Stefania's voice came to him he sprang upwards.

"You will guarantee my safety, yes?"

Derrick landed in a crouch on top of the three meter wide ledge below the next wall.

"What are you doing?"

"Walk over there, to the edge," that prick, Delta Two, ordered her.

"What are you going to do?" Stefania sounded so afraid, it tore Derrick's heart out all over again. "I gave you the disk, didn't I?" She turned to face the empty air of the drop. "No! Stop!"

Someone began to push her just like before.

"Please..." Stefania looked down and right into Derrick's eyes.

"Jump," he silently mouthed and held out his arms.

Stefania gave a small smile and jumped of her own volition. Derrick caught her as though they'd rehearsed it a million times and immediately pushed her into a corner.

"Keep your head down. I'll come back in a second."

"Okay, Derrick."

Derrick winked at her, took several deep breaths, and kicked himself into overdrive. He leaped up onto the main platform, flipped over the heads of two of the soldiers, and landed in front of a third. It was a second lieutenant and Derrick straight palmed him in the chest. The man hurtled through the air though he seemed to float at the speed that Derrick was moving. Derrick snatched the disk the man had in hand before turning to the other two. They were only half-turned and Derrick went to the one on his left. He gripped the helmet and twisted it completely around. A sidekick sent the solder beside him into a pylon that the supports had turned into.

Time sped up again and a human 'Beat, two of them actually, approached from behind him. Derrick sprinted to the curve in the elevator base and met them with a sustained burst of SMG fire. He made sure they were all out of the fight before circling to the other side where the transport chopper had found an extension of the base to land. Derrick charged a pulse-sphere and held it up as he approached the 'chopper. He could feel the pilot's 'Beat growing frantic the closer he got.

"Open the door," Derrick ordered and the pilot pressed a button that popped up the pilot's emergency door.

Derrick reached in and hauled him out as the pulse-sphere dissipated. He bound the pilot's hands with a pair of plastic restraints before dragging him back to where Stefania was waiting. Derrick hopped down, scooped the beautiful woman up, and jumped back up. When he set her down she was very reluctant to let go.

"Derrick! Thank you! Thank you!" Stefania practically sobbed her relief. "You saved my life. I was so foolish... thinking only of myself."

"Well, there's a lot of that going around," Derrick said as he gently pried her arms from their stranglehold around his neck.

Stefania laughed, "Yes, very true." She suddenly sobered and fixed Derrick with an intense gaze, "The soldiers were talking about you. You plan to stop Nexus?"

Derrick nodded, "Yes. If I can make it in time."

"I don't know who you think you are, but you're serious, aren't you!"

"Very."

"Come with me."

Stefania led Derrick over to where a small stand of equipment, with a laptop on top of it, and a power generator were situated against the elevator. It was right behind them so Derrick left the pilot where he was.

"This elevator leads deep in the silos," Stefania gestured to an opening that was blocked by a perforated wall of T'lan chitin. "I'll move this." Stefania typed commanded into the laptop, "I wish there was more I could do."

The chitin door slid down to reveal a circular lift in the center of the spire. Derrick looked up and noticed that the material of the elevator was noticeably different. It looked more artificial than the T'lan architecture he had come across before. There were also odd designs etched into the metal.

Derrick turned back to the Eastern European scientist, "I don't supposed you know how to pilot a helicopter?"

"No, I don't."

"Well," Derrick removed a sidearm and holster from a convenient corpse, "Do you know how to use one of these?"

Stefania nodded and took the gun, "I've had some training."

"Let me see you switch a clip," Derrick asked and nodded in satisfaction when she did so quite adroitly for a civilian. "Okay. Follow me."

Derrick dragged the pilot back to the side of the 'chopper and pulled the troop bay door open.

"I should have some friends coming back down in a while!" Derrick had to shout to be heard above the helicopters blades. "Watch him! You might need him to get out of here! Okay!"

Stefania nodded and Derrick tossed the man into the 'chopper with one arm. He bound the man at the ankles and went back around to the elevator door.

"Here," Derrick handed Stefania the disk, "Make sure Dr. Ogawa gets a copy."

Stefania nodded and he stepped onto the platform. Stefania made the door rise and stepped close to one of the crescent-shaped holes in the door.

"Derrick, I don''t want to say goodbye to you. I want you to become the first test subject for my research."

Derrick grinned, "Alright. I promise."

Stefania's blue eyes twinkled with delight, "I won't forget you said that. Good luck, Derrick."

"Thanks, Stefania. I'll see you later."

The lift began to rise and Stefania fell from view. The insides of the lift were a dazzling white with clusters fo shaped T'lan chitin.

"_Gianni here. Cole, you listening?"_

"_I hear you, Gianni."_

"_The other units didn't get the disk. We've got some time to kill before that fuckin' nuke hits. So, let's stop the goddamned T'lan in the silos before that happens! We're going deep into the silo area. I expect to see you there soon!"_

"_Just save some for me!"_

Gianni laughed and got off the line. The lift picked up speed but it still seemed to take forever to reach the top. His first indication was when the walls stopped going up forever. They ended at a tiny black point that grew larger every second. Then the lift began to slow and Derrick could make out the shape of the inside of a conical structure. He rose above the edge of the hole and found himself atop the central structure in the T'lan silo.

_Thank you, Stefania. That cut the trip by half an hour at least!_

Derrick got his bearings and jogged to the edge of the structure. The stand of damaged human equipment was there as well as its three guardians. The Stealth T'lan had yet to make an appearance, but he knew they would.

Derrick cracked his knuckles and jumped off the edge.

**xXx**

Derrick emerged from the T'lan rocket launch pad at a sprint. Memory carried him up and over the wings on his right. His first leap carried him over the first wing and gave him a glimpse of camouflaged figures firing ATL-cannons at Assault T'lan. The distinctive figure of Gianni was at the head of the formation.

_Of course he is._

Derrick's second leap carried him only two meters from Gianni's left side. He fired a pulse–sphere at the nearest Assault T'lan without looking. If Gianni was surprised at Derrick's sudden appearance he didn't show it.

"Glad you could join this fucking cluster-fuck, Cole!" Gianni grinned, "Alright, maggots! Form up on Cole! Covering fire by flank only!"

"Hey, it's him!" one of the Marines shouted.

"Up and at 'em, Marines!"

There were only four of Gianni's Marines left but they formed up smartly as Derrick charged forward. He fired a succession of rapid-fire pulse-spheres to stun the half dozen Assault T'lan guarding the ramp. Gianni and his Marines finished them off with pinpoint cannon fire. Derrick and the Marines gained the top of the ramp and Gianni gestured for a pair of Marines to take each side. Assault T'lan were ejected from the peculiar T'lan cannon protrusions overlooking the sides of the ramp. They landed in groups of two in small clearings on either side of the ramp. Gianni switched out the ATL power packs while him men picked the T'lan off as they landed. Derrick only needed to lend a hand when someone ran out of battery packs and Gianni had to retrieve extra from a fallen comrade at the bottom of the ramp.

Then, as though someone had turned off a faucet, there were no more Assault T'lan.

"Sir!" one of Gianni's men covering the left flank called, "The countermeasures device is crawling with Bugs!"

"Shit!" Gianni shouted, "This day just keeps going from bad fuck to worse fuck to somebody get this bitch off of me! I've lost too many men today," Gianni's voice grew soft, "Cole, any idea how we can get 'em off with blowing up the device."

Derrick patted Gianni's shoulder, "Get behind cover."

Gianni nodded as though he knew Derrick would have an idea, "You heard 'em."

Derrick strolled up to the device and waited until the Bugs were almost on him before releasing a shockwave. The device barely rocked while the Bugs splattered messily all over it.

"Goddamn, Cole! You're _way_ fucking better than bug spray! Now hit the switch before more T'lan fucks show up!"

The switch was huge, square, and blue-green. It wasn't hard to miss. Derrick hit the button and the earth shook like the device was a shot in its ass. Derrick watched as the T'lan rocket collapsed in on itself back into the launch pad.

"Whoa... holy shit!" Gianni whispered as they watched all the rockets in sight disappear into their launch pads.

The ground stilled only to resume quaking moments later. Before their eyes the T'lan rockets grew back in seconds. It was unbelievable.

"Awww, sheee-_it_! It's no good! They're growing back! We have to destroy Nexus, it's the only way! I'm-"

Gianni's tirade cut off and Derrick whirled around to find that Gianni had slumped to his knees. One of his men was pulling medical supplies from his sack. Gianni looked like he was bleeding from a cut on his upper thigh. The very same that had helped him before.

"Patch me up, Lian. We've got to stop Nexus," Gianni groaned, shifting so that he was sitting on his ass.

"No offense, sir," the medic said, "But we've all got injuries and you might need a fucking transfusion when we get out of here."

"Plus," a Marine standing guard chimed in, "We're low on battery packs."

"Shit. Cole, I'm sorry. I'm all messed up. We bought some time at least. You'll have to finish this. You _have_ to destroy Nexus. The entrance is that way," Gianni pointed at the barrier opposite the ramp. "I hate to do this but you guys can have all the glory on this mission. You guys should be able to..." Gianni looked around in puzzlement for a second. "Cole? Where's your partner?"

Derrick clenched a fist that suddenly crackled to violet life, "She's been captured. Solus took her to Nexus."

"Ahhh... Well, then you'd better go save her! Leave no man _or_ woman behind enemy lines."

"That was the plan," Derrick stood close to Gianni, "There's a scientist named Stefania Wojinski. I left her at the bottom of the elevator with a transport 'chopper and its pilot. Tell her you're my friends and she won't shoot. Matybe."

Gianni grinned, "Is she as hot as your partner?"

Derrick grinned, "Yup, but definitely not as fuckable."

Gianni barked laughter, "Well, go get your partner, Cole. And destroy that sonofbitch Nexus!"

Derrick slapped Gianni's shoulder gently before jogging past his subordinates and into the series of airlocks leading to Nexus' central dome. After the first two, Derrick started sprinting in his anxiety that Solus might kill Alex before he got there. He opened the last barrier via the node and stepped onto the first of the hovering platforms. He jumped towards the island with all his might.

_Light. Like a feather._

Derrick floated down gently in the center of the island and bolted for Alex's cage. She was still alive and confined just like before. Derrick quickly unlocked the cage and she fell into his arms once again.

"Derrick... run," she groaned and tears clouded Derrick's vision briefly.

"It's alright," Derrick reassured her as Solus' 'Beat was suddenly just _there_, "I made a promise and I'm going to keep it." Derrick handed her several ration bars, "Eat, I'll be right back."

Derrick stood and turned to Solus. He began divesting himself of weapons as Solus spoke.

"Leave the female. Baggage."

Derrick removed his flak vest and his T-shirt this time. He looked down and frowned at the faint purple-white whorls on his left pectoral. Derrick shrugged and went forward with his hands relaxed at his sides. Solus waited with that irritating little smirk that Derrick loathed.

_Time to wipe it off._

Derrick swung a lazy left hook and Solus caught it. The island capped with gas-liquid and Solus sneered.

"Are you-!"

Before Solus could finish, Derrick had grabbed his arm and used it to swung Solus around into the nearest prong. The impact left striations in the chin and Solus lost his grip as he slid to the ground. Derrick dropped to one knee and planted that knee right into Solus' face. Half of Solus' head was deep in the crust of the island and Derrick went to both knee. He palmed Solus' head and neck, raised his right leg, and drove it forward into Solus' temple. There was a wet crack and Solus went into convulsions.

Derrick stood, took several steps back, and knelt on both knees. He placed both hands on his thighs and composed himself physically, mentally, and spiritually.

_There can be no thought_, came a voice unbidden. _Only reaction and action. His will against yours. Now fight, Derrick! Fight!_

Solus rose up in an electrical corona and regarded Derrick.

"Not surprised, human. Know you my actions?" Solus patted his chest and shook his head, "It matters not. We make this round _quick_."

Derrick rose to his feet with his arms at his sides. Solus charged himself with the corona of energy and was suddenly a blur. Derrick took one, quick, deep breath and suddenly Solus was in front of him going for a spinning back kick. Derrick spun around the kick and raised his arm. With a loud cry, he delivered a hammerfist to Solus' exposed hamstring. There was a burst of violet light and Solus dropped like a ton of bricks. Derrick looked at the twisted mess he had made of Solus' leg and could only find one adequate response.

Derrick grinned.

"A first. Solus knocked to ground," Solus stood and Derrick watched as his knee reknit itself.

Solus came at Derrick with a flying knee that made the human backpedal because of the explosiveness of the move. Solus landed and twisted to throw a spinning sidekick that Derrick fell backwards into a roll to avoid. Solus turned the sidekick into a rolling aerial kick as though he were a Tae Kwon Do master. Derrick came out of his roll into a back handspring that he continued. When Derrick hit the wall he simply kept going up the vertical surface until he lost all momentum. Once that happened he was amazed to discover he was nearly four meters up the prong. Solus cocked his head, bent his knees, and sprang towards Derrick. Derrick pushed off the prong and rose meters higher into the air. Solus kicked off the spot that Derrick had left with such force that he left a meter wide impact crater. Derrick twisted in mid-air and rolled over the thrust kick Solus had been aiming for. Derrick threw an elbow down but somehow Solus got him in a shoulder-and-elbow grapple.

The two combatants were hurtling towards the ground from ten meters above the island and Solus felt like he weighed a ton. At three meters, more or less, Derrick twisted his legs like a corkscrew and managed to switch position with Solus. When they hit the ground the entire island shook. Derrick was gathering himself to get off of Solus' limp carcass when a piston hit him in the lower back. He flipped up, the world spinning crazily, and across the island to hit a prong face-first. Derrick dug himself a comfortable little hole with the impact and, when combined with the flash of white as well as the pain, had him thinking that he had blacked out for a moment.

A hand grabbed his hair, "Your death was to be quick, human."

Solus pulled Derrick out of the depression and he hit the ground hard. Somehow, without even realizing how, Derrick spun on the ground to sweep Solus' legs forward. A clump of hair came loose but he ignored the new pain as it could barely compete with the throbbing in his face. Solus rolled forward and came up with his back to Derrick. When he turned there were two pulse-spheres in his hands. Derrick licked the blood from the corners of his mouth and grinned. Solus launched his left pulse-sphere and Derrick leaned his head to the side to let it harmlessly scream past him by centimeters. The next came toward his chest and a twist of the torso dodged that one.

"Is that all you've got," Derrick said, straightening and striding towards Solus, "Try again."

Solus fired two more pulse-spheres simultaneously this time. The first Derrick swayed around but the second, and Derrick had no idea what possessed him to even try something so stupid, he slapped into harmless motes of light.

"Try harder," Derrick egged Solus on as he stepped closer.

Solus lowered his arms and the pulse-sphere charge built for longer than normal. Derrick was three meters away when Solus raised his hands a steady fucking _stream_ of pulse-sphere raced towards Derrick. Just like that Derrick was in overdrive and rolling beneath the barrage. Solus was still moving at half-speed and Derrick went for a rising uppercut. The blow snapped Solus' head back and he rose into the air. Derrick went with him and delivered a brutal forearm shot to Solus' temple. As Solus fell Derrick Focused and drove Solus into the ground with his boot.

Derrick's burst of superhuman speed ended and he slumped to one knee in exhaustion. Beside him, Solus stirred in the rubble of his small crater. Suddenly, in a shower of debris, Solus was free and pissed off. Derrick noted with satisfaction that Solus' chin was stained with whitish blood and it wasn't healing. Solus came at Derrick with a shoulder-tackle and caught Derrick as he was rising to his feet. They hurtled across the island and into the prong that Derrick had thrown Solus into. There was a titanic crack, Derrick couldn't tell if it was his back or the prong, and liquid warmth exploded from his mouth.

"_Fuck you_!" Derrick spat out with a considerable amount of blood and brought his left elbow down between Solus' shoulder blades.

Solus squeezed Derrick's waist, compressing his hips excruciatingly, and slammed Derrick into the prong. Derrick spread his legs to stead himself and speared his elbow into Solus' back with increasing ferocity. The violet traceries spread up his arm and brightened as he delivered strike after strike. His arm was a blur and left searing afterimages in its wake. Solus' knees buckled and Derrick pried his arms from around his waist. Solus straightened with blinding speed and slipped Derrick's chin with the back of his head. Stars burst before his eyes and even more blood flooded his mouth but he maintained his grip on Solus' arms. Derrick raised his left leg between them and thrust his boot into Solus' chest with all his remaining strength. Solus flipped backwards through the air and landed on his belly near the center of the island. Derrick turned to the prong and grinned at its destabilized base.

Derrick sprinted for the massive crater in the prong and gave it a running, spinning, reverse roundhouse kick. There was a flash of light and a ponderous groan from the prong. Derrick rolled away as the prong began to topple towards the center of the aisle. Solus had raised himself onto his hands and knees. He looked up at the sound of the cracking prong base before being crushed by its massive weight. Derrick spit out yet another clot of pale blood and rose to his feet. It felt like several of his ribs were broke and his face throbbed incessantly. Solus was buried under a ton of rubble so that made him feel better. He turned to look for Alex but the sound of rubble shifting brought him back to Solus' tomb.

_Okay, maybe _not_ a tomb._

Solus crawled from the rubble as though he were a pasty mole. Solus' skin, that was uncovered by T'lan chitin, was scratched and oozing blood but the tough sonofabitch rose unsteadily to his feet, stepped off the rubble, and dusted himself off. White blood streamed from his nose and one yet was nearly swollen shut but Solus put his hands up in a classic boxing stance as he came toward Derrick. Derrick took a deep breath, not a full one because of a sharp pain in his chest, and held his hands tight to his sides as he went forward. Bone-deep exhaustion, threatened to stop Derrick in his tracks but he kept going despite the knowledge that he couldn't risk using another T'langen power. It would kill him in his current state, he was certain of it.

Solus came at him with a left hook to the body. Derrick stepped back and then came forward with a jab to the face. Solus slipped underneath it and came up with an underhand jab to the abdomen. Derrick's feet left the ground for a moment and Solus threw a high kick. Derrick blocked it with both hands and lashed out with a reverse palm-slap to Solus' face. It was enough to stagger Solus so that Derrick could regain his wobbly footing. Solus leapt forward with a flying knee and Derrick leapt to meet him. Somehow Derrick got enough height to unleash a devastating thrust-kick that caught Solus flush in the nose. Solus' knee smashed into Derrick's hamstring as he flipped backwards from the hit and they both twirled through the air to hit the ground hard.

Derrick landed on his gut only a few meters from where Solus landed directly on his head. There was a sickening thud and blood started leaking from Solus' ears when he landed on his back. Solus head rolled so that his bright blue eyes were fixed on Derrick. Those eyes had lost eerie luminescence and suddenly Solus seemed much more human.

"Derrick..." even his voice had lost the artificial quality, "Remember... I am just... Nexus'... avatar."

Solus' eyes rolled white and the corona brightened to such intensity that Derrick had to squeeze his eyes shut. When he opened them Solus was gone.

_I did it._

"Derrick?" Alex called from somewhere to his left.

"Here," Derrick said, slowly rousing himself up on his elbows.

Alex slid on her knees to his side and produced three ration bars. He ate them quickly and took several sips from his drinking straw. As soon as he put the flak jacket down Alex had her arms around his neck.

"I'm alive...," Alex whispered, her voice filled with wonder, "Why am I alive?"

Derrick pushed her back to look into her eyes, "I _won't_ let you die. I made a promise. Remember?"

"Derrick, you..." Alex's voice hitched as she looked into his eyes, "You...! I was looking all over for you! We got split up on the way back, and now... I've finally found you."

Alex hugged Derrick gently, her head on his shoulder, and whispered, "Derrick, do you remember what you're here to do?"

"Well," Derrick chuckled, "The right thing to say would be that I came to destroy Nexus but that's really just secondary." Derrick pushed her back again, "I really came to save you."

Alex grinned, "I appreciate it, Derrick, believe me. But the world is at stake."

"I know. So, now that you're safe, I _will_ destroy Nexus."

"That's right," Derrick rose to his feet and Alex followed, "As long as Nexus still exists, the world is screwed and our future belongs to the T'lan. From here on, history is in your hands. Don't let me down."

Derrick finished buckling his flak vest and took Alex's hands, "_Our_ hands, partner."

Alex smiled, "Our hands. That lift should take us down."

Derrick turned to find that a wall of airlock energy barrier had close off the circular region in the center of the island.

"I'll go first," Derrick said, hopping a few time to get the feeling back in his legs.

Derrick entered the circular area and waited a few seconds. He turned back to Alex and gestured for her to join him. When Alex got within a meter of the barrier it shifted from blue-green to red. Alex hit it and let out a cry of outrage.

"I can't get through, Derrick!" Alex grimaced with frustration, "Until you come back, I'll look for a way up to the surface. So come back, okay? Promise?"

Derrick smiled and gave her a thumbs up, "Promise."

Derrick began to descend then and Alex pressed herself against the barrier.

"Thank you, Derrick! Thank you for saving me! See you soon!"

"I'll be back, Alex! I'm gonna want a kiss, too!"

"My pleasure, hotshot!"

Then Alex disappeared from view and Derrick was in another T'lan lift shaft.

_Talk about incentive._


	39. Nexus

When the lift finally came to a stop, a little less than a minute after it began the descent, Derrick found himself floating in a white void. He knew now that it was an illusion and that there were walls to the place. That didn't help the encroaching feeling of insignificance the place caused. He turned and saw that there was a path of six-sided, floating platforms leading off into the whiteness. Some were isolated, while others were in small clusters. Derrick looked down into nothingness and took a deep breath.

_Don't fall_, he thought as he hopped onto the first platform.

Next there was a cluster that he stepped up to and then the next platform was two meters away. Derrick jumped the gap easily and was brought up short by what looked like a translucent ring floating in the air before the next platform. He reached out to touch it and encountered some resistance. It was like pressing against compacted gel. With a shrug, he hopped through it down to the next cluster of platforms.

Derrick began traversing the path with growing speed and confidence. Soon he came to the end. It was another translucent ring but this one had what looked like an airlock barrier through its center. Derrick removed a round from the chamber of his sidearm and tossed it into the ring. The round disappeared in a flash of light. Derrick took several quick breaths and leapt through the portal.

It was just like passing through a T'lan airlock. A flash of light and his feet were hitting a hard surface. Derrick found himself facing a cylindrical chamber that soared high above him. He could see neither a top or a bottom. He turned to see that a normal airlock barrier was placed in the wall of the chamber.

"_Normal airlock barrier"? I've gotta get the fuck out of here._

Derrick took two steps into the chamber and the entire place began to rumble. A huge pillar of T'lan crystals, nearly as tall as a rocket, came bursting through the path to the other side. Several more broke the path into several sections. The columns, they looked more like slabs really, continued to rise by an unknown and unseen method of propulsion.

_Fucking great! One more obstacle._

Derrick jogged at a quick pace and leaped across the gaps with amazing precision. He came to a point where the slabs rose in between the gaps in the path and simply timed his jump. The slabs rose slowly enough that it was easier than getting syphilis in Shanghai.

_Now how the fuck do I know _that Derrick thought as he landed on the platform just before the airlock barrier on this side of the chamber.

Derrick passed through and into another white room. He leapfrogged down the path like a rabbit. There was only one difference in this room. At the last platform cluster, before the barrier, was a dead scientist.

_How the fuck did he get down here?_

The cause of death was obvious. Something had punctured the man's lower back. He had crawled through the barrier and died here. Derrick shook his head, ground his teeth, and hopped through the portal. He emerged into another cylindrical chamber. This time the series of platforms were at varying levels, the highest two stories above his head, and the gap as large as four meters across.

_I feel like the Incredible Hulk_, Derrick grinned as he made the first jump.

When he landed the chamber shook and the slabs _descended_ this time in order to offer up deadly obstacles. Derrick jumped up and along a series of platforms that also curved around. Something exploded beneath him when he reached the top and Derrick looked down to see the platforms detonating below him. Derrick sprinted and jumped for the next platform. When his feet hit the ground he instantly rebounded into the air. He was only two jumps away when a slab rose up to smash a platform in front of him.

Derrick stopped, waited for the next pass, and jumped through the gap. There was no platform in front of the airlock barrier in the wall. It was just there and the slabs descended every five seconds. Derrick leapt forward through the barrier and slid on his belly to the edge of a platform

"Fuck," he whispered, rising to his feet.

This path was slightly different than the others. In the space between the platform Derrick was on and the next were two platforms tilted at differing angles. Derrick sighed and jumped between them to the next platform. A few times, Derrick was forced to jump onto platforms whose angles were slight, in order to reach the next level cluster but he still managed the path easily enough.

Derrick passed through another ring barrier and almost landed on top of a woman. He looked down with pity upon her blood-soaked clothing and the fetal position he had curled into. Then the chamber rocked and he was staring aghast at the number of slabs rocketing up and down the chamber. Some of them were moving so fast they were blurs.

_I can do this_, Derrick thought as he exhaled explosively.

The first jump was easy, but when he neared the edge of the next platform cluster a slab erupted and destroyed the platforms three meters away. The next were five and more slabs intermittently flew upward through the gap. Derrick gathered himself and leapt after a column passed. As soon as his feet hit the next platform a slab brother through the next cluster.

_This is going to get old fast,_ Derrick thought as he began to time his next jump.

Progress through this part of the chamber was slow, some of the slabs came at very short intervals, but Derrick sweated his way through. Then he came to a series of descending platforms. The gaps between them were filled with the blur of crystal-slabs moving at fantastic speeds. Derrick took one look and his body instinctively went into overdrive. Now the columns were moving much slower but still fast enough to hurt. Derrick hopped from platform to platform like a madman. His momentum was so great that he had to roll through the airlock barrier. Derrick rolled to a stop in a high, white-walled corridor with a pitch black ceiling. He came to his feet and cautiously made his way down the corridor. Where the path turned left there was the body of another scientist. He went past it without a second glance and came to the end of the corridor.

The room was big, the walls white and covered in those strange designs Derrick had noticed on the elevator in the tower. Four shining white columns ascended into the black ceiling and seemed to be of equal distance from the center of the room. Behind those columns, slightly off-center, were alcoves ringed with T'lan ejectors.

_Of fucking course_, Derrick thought as all of the ejectors in the alcove to his right began to glow.

Derrick sprinted and slid to a halt beneath the ejector as it spat out a T'lan Elite. Before it could land Derrick took three strides, leaped, and spin kicked the T'lan in the lower back with all his strength. There was a sharp crack and the T'lan went tumbling out of control across the five meter wide alcove. Derrick landed next to an Elite and hammered his left elbow into his side. The T'lan hunched over and Derrick grabbed him to throw to carry across his shoulders. Another Elite charged at him from the left and Derrick hurled the Elite at his brother. The two bodies collided with a sickening thud and Derrick turned back to the other two.

The next several minutes became a blur of running and killing. Behemoths, Assault T'lan, Stealth T'lan, as well as more Elites, all fell to the power of his fists. He moved in an near-trance of extraordinary grace. His head only started to clear after delivering a Focused uppercut to a Behemoth that broke its neck. He turned and discovered that there were no more foes to kill. Exhaustion hit him heavily then but the area was littered with both types of energy spheres. Within seconds Derrick was back to full fighting trim. In the center of the room, in a small depression, was a cylinder of blue-green light.

_Great. Another lift._

Derrick confidently walked into the beam of light. The barrier shifted to red and Derrick began to descend. Soon everything was lost in a white-out only to fade to black a second later. Gradually light came back to Derrick and he found himself in a dark room. He was standing on a hard surface but it was hard to tell because the floor was the same color as everything else. Long, triangular crystals protruded from the walls around Derrick and from those extended violet beams of light. Tiny dots of light traveled down the beams as though they fiber-optic cables.

Only four meters away, almost completely encircled by the crystals, was a scintillating ball of light. Beneath the ball was a crescent of yellow light that let Derrick know there _was_ an actual floor. The ball of light was where all the beams led to and Derrick knew what he was looking at.

_Nexus. You _little_ motherfucker!_

Derrick took two steps and pain began to build in his temples. He shook his head and took another step. The pain increased and his vision began to blur.

_No! I won't give up!_

Derrick took another step and the pain swelled. His knees buckled and suddenly he couldn't breath.

"No," he choked out a sob, "No."

Then everything faded away.

xXx

Once again Derrick found himself floating in a sea of whiteness. There was a peace to it that was oddly soothing. That peace was shattered by harsh, distorted coughing.

"Hey, wake up," it was Glen's voice, but deeper and horribly distorted. Like something out of a nightmare. "You're our last chance."

Alarm klaxons went off and a room slowly came into view. Someone laughed a chilling, ghostly laugh and Derrick found himself sitting on the medical cot that Alex had found him on what felt like years ago. Everything was too bright, colorful, and at the same time washed out. A globe of pinkish-white light floated in front of him before dashing off as he got off the cot. There were bloodstains on the floors and wall where Alex had killed the soldiers trying to kill Derrick.

The big screen television to his right came on as he stood. The screen was filled with dark gray static.

"Are you crazy?" It was Alex's voice... he thought it was.

"Have you gone mad?" Derrick looked around angrily for the source of the voice as deep laughter filled the room.

"You've gone made!"

"_Shut_ _up_!" Derrick shouted back not unlike, to his chagrin, a madman.

Three figures faded into view. It was three soldiers aiming MP5's at him. Derrick tired charging a pulse-sphere and not a damn thing happened.

"You bastard!" the nearest shouted and stepped closer.

Derrick stepped to the side and chopped the soldier in the throat. He spun the man around and snatched his SMG away. Derrick back into the wall as the other two opened fire. Derrick's captive soldier jerked under the impact of multiple bullets and Derrick returned fire. Once his magazine was empty, and the soldier down, he dropped the body he was holding up. Before the body hit the floor it disappeared and so did the SMG Derrick was holding.

"The Rehab Room is through there."

Derrick looked up and grimaced at the corpse of the technician that had run him through the tests of his physical capabilities. At least a dozen exit wounds gaped in the man's torso but he raised his hand to point to the exit.

"Sorry to push you so hard, but please work with us," even _his _voice was distorted, "I'll explain everything once we get started."

The automated door slid open and Derrick followed the corridor in an eerie repeat of the past. He turned a corner and a scientist collapsed in front of him with a low groan. Before Derrick could get to him the man disappeared like a T'lan.

_Nexus! It's fucking with my brain! How the fuck do I kill it!_

Derrick walked as he thought, passing dropping bodies without a glance, and coming up with nothing. He entered Rehab Room 1 and the dead technician was waiting for him. The zombie fuck was obscenely pressed against the glass of the observation booth.

"Alright, let's get to work! First, a question. What's your name?"

_Okay, Nexus. I'll play along._

"It's Derrick."

"Freak!"

_Well, that was new._

"First, let's test your eyesight. Stand in the middle of the red ring on the floor, and look at the logo on the wall. Derrick did so and clenched his fists as Alex faded into view. She was staked to the wall above the logo as though she had been crucified.

"Oh no, this can't be happening!" Alex's voice said, and then she slipped of f the stakes.

Alex hit the ground with a thud but there was no blood.

"Hmm... no problem there. Time to move to the next room. Okay, let's open the door."

Derrick turned back to the door and, out of the corner of his eye, saw that floating orb of light.

_So... watching the monkey dance, are you?_

Derrick made his way to Room Two and went straight for the desk on the left. There were two clipboards there and he picked up the one on the left.

**To: Medical Team**

**There are increasing reports of Nexus area researchers complaining about fatigue and anxiety. Some have even reported hearing voice. Please dispatch a med crew ASAP to investigate this phenomenon.**

The entire time Derrick read he could hear the alarm klaxon intermix with unearthly moans and sobbing in the background. It was really starting to annoy him. He picked up the next one. It was a medical chart.

**Name: Test Subject 7**

**Test Specification: T'langen Treatment Experiment**

**19:35- Pulse rate drop**

**20:01- Death**

**08:16- Administered epinephrine**

**08:26- Administered epinephrine**

**09:56- Death**

**09:57- Death**

**09:58- Death**

**09:59- Death**

The last page just had '**DEATH**' written in five rows all the way down the page. It was the sort of thing a teenager would write in their journal. A crazy, sonofabitch teenager.

Derrick swiped the keycard and opened the clear door into the obstacle course. The little bridge fell without an earthquake and Derrick jumped the small trench. He crouched beneath the wall on the other side but was stopped halfway when two researchers staggered toward the crawlspace.

They were both on fire.

Derrick waited for them to drop and go out. He had felt the heat and was sure that if he dies here then he died for real. Once he safely emerged he climbed the ladder in the pit in the left far corner. He reached the top and immediately focused on a white-coated figure at the edge of the other side. It looked like Stefania. When Derrick got within three meters she screamed.

"Nooo!"

Stefania flew off the edge and landed on her back staring up at Derrick. Sitting against the opposite wall was a battered Gianni. Derrick jumped down, next to Stefania's fading body, and walked over to the Marine. His chin was resting against his chest but Gianni lifted it a little.

"Cole..." he said weakly and very distorted, " I'm the only one who made it out. The only option left... is to destroy Nexus. But I think it's probably...too late."

Gianni's head slumped and a second later his body dissipated into motes of light. Derrick belly-crawled through the slot in the wall to his left and stood a few meters from the pit with the bar on the right wall. He jumped, grabbed the bar, and began inching his way to the other side. When he was halfway there three figures faded into view. One was Alex and the other two were soldiers. The three engaged in a furious firefight. Instinct took over and Derrick accelerated to go to Alex's aid.

Derrick hit the ground and sprinted for the nearest soldier.

"Derrick, you can't fight them now!" Alex shouted.

Derrick ignored her and slammed the soldier against the wall. He drew the man's knife and stabbed him in the throat. Derrick turned, saw Alex fading away, and hurled his bloody blade at the last. It caught the soldier in the thigh and he crumpled.

Derrick spit and pulled himself up to the doors leading to the antechamber.

"Well, your physical capabilities seem just fine. The next test is the last one. Let's get through it as quickly as we can and break for lunch. Go to Room Three please."

Derrick jogged around the corner and into Room 3.

"Now let's see how your shooting skills have held up. Don't worry, they're rubber bullets." Derrick picked the sidearm and clip up. "First try and shoot the target in front of you."

Derrick went up to the waist-high wall blocking access to the range and growled as Stefania appeared before him. She was standing in a pool of blood with a small smile on.

_She's not real._

Derrick loaded his weapon and put a round into her chest. Stefania crumpled with a shrill cry and faded away.

"Nice work," the zombie technician congratulate him.

Nexus hovered in front of Derrick for a moment but darted off before he could even _begin_ to aim. Gianni faded into view, his ATL-cannon over one shoulder, in the same spot as Stefania. Derrick put one into his chest, too.

"Nice work."

Nexus mocked him again and this time Alex appeared. Derrick fired again and watched her fall with a quiet tinge of guilt.

"Nice work."

_I'm gonna fuck you up, you little fuck!"_

Now it was Glen holding an injector and Derrick fired.

"I cannot... die just yet," Glen fell and the injector flew out of his hands. When he faded... the injector remained.

"Now let's try some hand-to-hand combat."

Derrick tossed away the gun and jumped over the wall. Three T'lan Warrior started to fade into the dream but Derrick was already placing the needle against his arm. He plunged the needle in and pulled the trigger. The cleansing fire of Acceleration washed away the weird colors and, when it was over, Derrick felt 'normal' again.

Derrick's body went into overdrive, he spun around, and came face-to-orb with Nexus. Derrick's left fist pistoned forward in a Focused straight punch. Nexus shattered into a dozen pieces and a sphere of energy slowly expanded. Then the shards of Nexus blasted apart and all was darkness. Then Derrick found himself back in Nexus' nest. He was still on one knee only a meter from the little fuck.

Derrick darted forward with a Focused flying knee and Nexus shattered into a million pieces.


	40. Escape

Derrick was falling.

Once Derrick had shattered Nexus its sanctuary had also fallen apart and Derrick fell with it. He fell through a cavern of light, huge chunks of Nexus' sanctuary plummeted with him, and then he was falling through a crack in the floor.

_Or was it the ceiling?_

Derrick was falling face-up and saw the crack he had fallen through was steadily shrinking. The "sky" around it was dark but light shone through the crack.

_I must have fallen out of the "sun". That's a long way down._

Derrick spun so that he was facing the ground and his mouth went dry. He was falling toward the bridge over the lake just before the Tower. He was at least three hundred meters high and still accelerating.

_Light. Float. Like a feather,_ Derrick repeated over a hundred times on his way down.

Chunks of Nexus' sanctuary had broken through the bridge and rested in the lake. Strange updrafts of light came from the floating chunks. Derrick was heading straight for one at far too great a velocity to survive. He was so tired that he instinctively knew his shield would fail and he would get splattered.

_Well, at least I did what I came to do._

Derrick watched the rock approach with calm eyes. Four meters from impact, Derrick was suddenly buffeted by a strong updraft of... air. It felt more like he had fallen into a bowl full of jelly but he wasn't complaining. Derrick's velocity slowed quickly and he settled to a gently landing on all fours. He stood and looked up at the ceiling. The crack still looked huge and let in enough light that Site Zero was bathed in deep twilight as opposed to absolute darkness.

Derrick turned and saw that half of the bridge had fallen into the lake. Three gargantuan leaps carried him to the bottom of the bridge/ramp. A lone figure appeared at the top.

"Derrick!"

"Hey!"

The earth shook as Derrick and Alex raced to each other but neither cared. They embraced fiercely and, when they pulled back slightly, Alex lunged forward to kiss Derrick with bruising force. Derrick returned the favor but Alex broke the kiss far to early for Derrick's liking.

"I _knew_ I'd see you again," she whispered, her arms around his neck.

"Promise made," Derrick kissed her dirty nose, "Promise kept."

"But it's not over yet," Alex said, her voice serious as she broke their embrace,

I've got a jeep! Hurry!"

Alex took off, passed a stand of boulders, and to a waiting jeep.

"You drive!" she shouted, hoping into the passenger side and buckling her restraints. Derrick jumped into the driver's seat. "Drive until we're clear of Site Zero!"

Derrick, buckled his restraints, started the car and gunned it up the rise.

"Yes'm, Miss Daisy!" he grumbled, to which Alex stuck her tongue out.

"Stop fucking around and let's get out of this alive!"

"If we do, are you going to lose more clothes!"

"Maybe! Now drive!"

They were going down the other side, towards the cliff side, when the ground shook and Derrick struggled to maintain control.

"Site Zero is falling apart!" Alex said and Derrick bit down on a retort as he power-slid around a corner.

"_Calling all units! We've got evac choppers ready to go!"_ the voice sounded like one of Romeo's subordinates, _"We're evacuating in four minutes! No exceptions!"_

Derrick wove down the cliff side path, avoiding all the rock formations, at breakneck speed.

"We'll be saved if we can get to the chopper!" Alex cried, hanging on for dear life.

"_If_ we make the chopper," Derrick mumbled as he headed for the gorge to the airlock barrier.

"_We're saved! The T'lan have stopped moving, I repeat, the T'lan have been neutralized!"_

Derrick slowed down just a bit as they passed through the airlock chamber. They emerged into the canyons where Alex had fallen but the right path was blocked. Then the walls to their left partially collapsed to make a convenient ramp.

_Talk about lucky._

"_This is Romeo One-One-Five to all units! Site Zero is collapsing!"_

"No shit!" Derrick shouted as they caught air.

The jeep was back-heavy and they landed on all four tires. The bounce was minimal and Derrick drove down the canyon towards Gianni's temporary camp.

"Three minutes, Derrick!"

"Hang on!" Derrick shouted as they sailed off a three-meter drop.

They hit hard and something cracked loudly in the undercarriage.

"Hold together!" Derrick growled through clenched teeth as he gunned it down another gray walled canyon.

"_Leave your equipment behind! Leave everything!"_ that was Romeo's panicking voice again.

Derrick hit the brakes hard as he swerved his way through Gianni's abandoned camp. The easy way down was still blocked.

_So that leaves the hard way. What a fucking switch._

"Hold on!" Derrick roared as he drove over the four meter drop to the path around a deep gorge.

Derrick slammed on the brakes as the jeep bounced a dozen centimeters into the air on a straight line to the drop-off. He cut to the left and gave it all the gas he could. The jeeps wheels dug in and the vehicle lurched away from the disastrous drop. Derrick drifted around the gorge at over sixty kph.

"_Maintain speed! Wait! Watch out!"_ the frantic shouts ended with a panicked scream.

Derrick drove between a pair of boulders and into another small canyon.

"_This is Delta Six! Where the hell's the exit? Someone tell me!"_

"Two minutes!"

Derrick splashed through a small stream and raced down the bank. There were trees and boulders everywhere.

"_The rest of my squad is dead! The cliff collapsed on top of us!"_

Derrick spun the jeep in a tight, ninety-degree turn to enter the airlock in the rock wall to his left. They came out and into the wider canyons that led to the xit.

"Almost there!" Derrick shouted.

"_Not yet!"_ Gianni sounded pissed off, _"Wait for Cole and the woman!"_

"_We can't wait any longer, sir! Let's get outta here!"_

"_You'll wait as fucking long as I _tell_ you!"_

"Sounds like they've almost made it!" Alex said, her hand braced against the dashboard.

"Yeah, but let's hope they wait."

Derrick cut through a narrow section at full speed.

"So fucking step on it!" Derrick wanted to flip her off but he needed both his hands. "One minute! Oh shit!" Alex shouted as Derrick emerged into the base camp canyon. "The Tower! It's coming down!"

Derrick risked a glance and watched in horror as it fell toward their exit. He slammed the pedal down and his eyes stared forward as the Tower plummeted towards them. They passed beneath the Tower's shadow and a massive boom echoed around them as they crested the rise to the airlock. The jeep passed through the airlock in an instant and their momentum was so great that they caught air at the top of the long ramp. The ceiling was only a dozen centimeters from their heads. The rear tires hit first and the front half slammed into the ramp, but they didn't flip. Another tremor rocked the corridor and debris fell at the bottom of the ramp.

"We're going to have to ditch!" Derrick shouted, hitting the release on his seat restraints.

Alex did the same and Derrick hit the brakes as well as the emergency brake. The jeep screeched to a halt and they piled out. The two sprinted onto the bridge over the chasm and were brought up short by the fact that a ten meter section was missing.

There was no helicopter.

"The bridge..."Alex sounded so hopeless that Derrick grabbed her around the waist tightly, "Looks like we didn't make it in time."

"But we saved the human race," Derrick whispered into her hair.

Just then a titanic section of the wall literally sliced the bridge from its moorings. The bridge rocked forward and slowly began to lift.

"Oh shit. We've got problems? What do we do now?" Alex asked, looking at Derrick as though he knew what to do.

Before Derrick could say anything, a voice came over the radio.

"_There they are!"_ Stefania shouted,_ "Right there!"_

"_Get in closer!"_ that was Gianni, _"Jump in, both of you!"_

Derrick turned and the transport chopper from the elevator rose into view. Stefania and Gianni framed the troop bay door.

"You go first," Alex said as it hovered closer.

Derrick gave her a look and hit transmit, _"Catch."_

Derrick grabbed Alex by her belt and shoulder and tossed her into the chopper. He jumped in after she flipped to land on her feet. The bridge tumbled down into the darkness.

"_Hurry! This whole damn place is falling apart!"_ Gianni shouted into his throat mic as he slammed the door closed.

It was only the four of them in the chopper and Stefania had a headset on.

"Everyone hold on tight!" Gianni warned as the helicopter ascended at breathtaking speed.

"You'll pay for that," Alex whispered into his ear as they say in the seats across from Gianni and Stefania.

The helicopter rose through the access shaft in the ceiling of the cavern and half a minute later they were rising above the Science Center. The ride became a lot smoother and Derrick went over to the viewport to watch the rising sun. Stefania's cat meowed and scampered onto her lap from beneath her seat.

"Aww!" Stefania cooed as she patted her kitty, "Aren't you glad you made it, Casval?"

"Heh," Gianni chuckled, "Smart cat, hidin' in the helicopter like that." He reached over and scratched behind Casval's ears.

"_Ogawa here. Derrick, you did well. You saved us all."_

"_Glad to see you made it, Glen,"_ Derrick replied, _"And I had help. Jameson make it?"_

"_Yeah, Derrick. My brother _was_ right about you. You're the baddest motherfucker alive!"_

"_Of course he is!"_ Gianni chimed in_, "He started out as a Marine. Semper Fi!"_

"_I hate to break this up,"_ it was Romeo yet again_, "But you're _all_ going to spend the rest of your lives in a cozy military prison."_

"_I don't think so, Colonel. Look behind you."_ Gianni said with a wicked chuckle.

"_Hey-! Who the -? Get your hands off me!"_

"_Sorry about that," _this voice sounded... it was the voice he had been hearing for the last few days!

"_No problem, General,"_ Gianni said with easy familiarity.

"_Michael?"_ Jameson sounded as though someone had just kicked him in the nuts.

"_Hey, brother. We'll catch up when you get here for debrief. I've got too much ass to kick so I can't talk for long. I'm glad you made it, Derrick. You made me proud, son."_

"_Thank you, sir."_

It was quiet for a moment before Stefania spoke, _"Well, at least now we won't go to jail."_

"_Yes,"_ Glen sounded tired, _"Of course, our research is down the drain, but still... you're right."_

Derrick watched as over a dozen helicopters came into view.

"_Don't be so gloomy, Glen. I have a present for you when we get to HQ."_

"_Stefania, you-?"_

"_I can't tell you. That would spoil it."_

Derrick and Alex watched as explosions enveloped the Science Center. The massive facility slowly sank into the bay.

"There goes the Science Center. It's over..." Alex turned to him, "We did it. We saved it all, right?"

Derrick hugged Alex to him, "Yeah."

"The world... and the future."

"What about your timeline?"

Gianni and Stefania were listening with confused expressions but neither spoke.

"I don't know," Alex looked puzzled and took a step back. "I haven't disappeared or anything... so it must still exist. But if I'm still here, and I haven't changed, that must mean that history has taken two different paths. Our timeline is probably the same as it was before." Alex bowed her head for a moment. "But that's alright." She turned back to the viewport. "We saved this world at least."

"Excuse me," Gianni raised his hand, "But just- what the fuck?"

Sparkling motes of light began to circle Alex.

"It's the Pendulum Effect! It's pulling me back!"

"Pendulum?" Stefania asked, hugging Gianni's side as Casval darted into his open cage.

Alex backed towards the bay door.

"Get away from me, everyone! It'll pull you in!" Alex hit the door release and it slid open.

Alex was pulled into the air outside of the helicopter and the rings of light started to revolve around her.

"What is going on?" Stefania sounded frightened.

"I should be the only one to go back to the future!" Alex said to Derrick after she looked into his eyes.

"Thanks, Gianni, Stefania." Derrick gave Stefania a quick hug and slapped Gianni's shoulder, "Tell the Jacobsen brothers thanks for me. And tell Glen I don't hate him."

Derrick turned and leaped into the Pendulum field. Alex snagged his hand in utter disbelief from her wide-eyed expression.

"Derrick, what are you doing?"

"You didn't forget that promise you made, huh?"

Alex blushed but then her eyes narrowed, "You can't be serious... you plan on saving our world too, don't you? That's impossible!"

"Hey," Derrick couldn't believe what he was about to say, "For you... I'd do anything."

Alex grinned, "Maybe you can then, Derrick."

Derrick smiled, "Maybe we can. Together."

Alex grinned even wider, "_Together_, huh. And what other things can we do _together_, hotshot?"

Derricks lips found hers as the world turned to light.

xXx

_Final Notes: I'd like to thank all the readers who continue reading the story through to the end. It was a long journey but one that was well worth it to me and I hope to you. Special thanks to Alice The Raven who is my most loyal of readers. Thanks, one more time._


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